Particulate reduction in ternary-compound film growth via pulsed laser deposition from segmented binary-targets

• Published in: Materials research express Vol. 5; no. 3; pp. 36402 - 36408
• Main Authors: Grant-Jacob, James A, Prentice, Jake J, Beecher, Stephen J, Shepherd, David P, Eason, Robert W, Mackenzie, Jacob I
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing 07.03.2018
• Subjects: 81.15.Fg; ceramic target; crystal structure; pulsed laser deposition; surface structure; thin films
• ISSN: 2053-1591; 2053-1591
• DOI: 10.1088/2053-1591/aab0ef

We present the hetero-epitaxial growth of high-quality crystalline Y3Ga5O12 onto a 〈100〉-oriented YAG substrate via pulsed laser deposition, using mixed ternary-compound and segmented binary-compound targets. We observe that a Y3Ga5O12 film fabricated using a segmented target (Y2O3/Ga2O3) contained ∼100 times fewer scattering points than a film grown using a mixed Y3Ga5O12 target. We show that following ablation, the surface of the mixed compound (ternary) target had laser-induced cone structures, whereas the surface of single compound (binary) targets did not. It is concluded that the different ablation dynamics of the oxide constituents in the respective targets plays a significant role in the origin of the scattering points in the resultant films.