Nanocrystalline Sm-Fe composites fabricated by pulse laser deposition at 157Â nm

Sm-Fe thin films were deposited on a Si wafer coated with a ∼100 nm thick layer of Ta by ablating a solid Sm-Fe target. The Sm-Fe target was ablated using a molecular fluorine laser with λ = 157 nm at low laser energy of ∼25 mJ/pulse. The thickness of the deposited amorphous film (in vacuum) was ∼20 nm and the dimensions of the nanocrystals deposited on the Si-Ta substrate (in He atmosphere) varied between 20 and 500 nm. Using the low energy laser for growing Sm-Fe nanocrystals by pulse laser deposition (PLD) results in a composition, which remains the same as the composition of the initial target. The morphology and the type of the films depended on the depositing experimental conditions.