LARGE AREA EXCIMER LASER-INDUCED DEPOSITION OF TITANIUM FROM TITANIUM TETRACHLORIDE

Large area excimer laser induced deposition of titanium on fused silica from TiCl4 is studied with an emphasis on process modeling. We show that several TiCl4 monolayers can be adsorbed if the surface is adequately prepared and that the Ti thin film growth occurs through the photodecomposition of this adsorbed TiCl4 layer. We propose two growth regimes. During an initiation phase, up to 3 nm in thickness, the adsorbed layer is photochemically decomposed giving a growth rate of approximately 0.015 nm/pulse. In a second phase, the deposition rate increases to between 2 and 7 nm/pulse due to the laser heating of the preceding photochemically deposited titanium film. Between consecutive pulses, TiCl4 molecules primarily from the adsorbed layer diffuse to the reaction zone leading to a new adsorbed layer ready to be transformed to solid titanium.