TOF study of pulsed-laser ablation of aluminum nitride for thin film growth

Laser ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS) was used to study the process of pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) of Aluminum Nitride (AlN) thin films. The components of the plume from the AlN target obviously changed under different deposition conditions. For the same impurity level, positive AlN ions were freer from impurities than negative ions. However, negative ions were more likely to form larger clusters. In particular, a novel cluster, comprising 10 AlN, was observed in negative TOF, suggesting that it is likely to yield highly oriented crystalline thin films when deposited on a substrate. © 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.