New Insight into the Gas Phase Reaction Dynamics in Pulsed Laser Deposition of Multi-Elemental Oxides.

The gas-phase reaction dynamics and kinetics in a laser induced plasma are very much dependent on the interactions of the evaporated target material and the background gas. For metal (M) and metal-oxygen (MO) species ablated in an Ar and O 2 background, the expansion dynamics in O 2 are similar to the expansion dynamics in Ar for M + ions with an MO + dissociation energy smaller than O 2 . This is different for metal ions with an MO + dissociation energy larger than for O 2 . This study shows that the plume expansion in O 2 differentiates itself from the expansion in Ar due to the formation of MO + species. It also shows that at a high oxygen background pressure, the preferred kinetic energy range to form MO species as a result of chemical reactions in an expanding plasma, is up to 5 eV.