Intelligent Process Control for Pulsed Laser Deposition

Even though Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) is still in its infancy, it has become an excellent way to deposit a wide variety of complex chemical compounds. Several applications for laser-deposition materials are merging. At present, little infrastructure exists to support PLD in comparison to conventional physical vapor disposition approaches. Due to the pulsed nature of the laser deposition process, standard deposition rate controllers cannot be reliably used. New techniques for monitoring an controlling both deposition rate and on-target laser fluency will be needing in order for PLD to become a production process. The PLD process also needs to be scaled up to substrate sizes compatible with commercial and military applications. This proposal plans first to identify several emerging applications for PLD. We will than develop a system design compatible with large-area laser deposition incorporating a novel laser entrance window, a unique deposition rate controller based on atomic absorption, and custom software. In the Phase II program, this system will be built and fully tested. Such a unit will provide intelligent closed-loop process control of relevant parameters for reproducible film growth, i.e., deposition rate and on-target laser fluency, thus making PLD a production-worthy film growth process.