Homogeneous films by inverse pulsed laser deposition

Here we report the growth of CNx and Ti films, simultaneously deposited in the co-rotating and static IPLD arrangements. The homogeneity of the co-rotating films is described by a thickness inhomogeneity index, which allows for the comparison of films of different lateral dimension. A semi-analytical, semi-numerical model is proposed to derive the radial variation of the growth rate of co-rotating IPLD films from the lateral growth rate distributions measured along the symmetry axes of static IPLD films. The laterally averaged growth rate, LAGR is used to describe how the ambient pressure affects growth in the 0.5-50 Pa domain. As an example, the absolute error between the measured and calculated radial growth rate variation, obtained at 5 Pa, was less than 3%, while the LAGR of CNx layers grown by co-rotating IPLD was predicted with 20% accuracy.