C. Muratore¹, D. Austin², B. Everhart², N.R. Glavin^2
1University of Dayton, Dayton OH
²Air Force Research Laboratory, Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Wright-Patterson AFB OH
Vaccum-based deposition processes, such as physical vapor deposition (PVD) or atomic layer deposition (ALD), are generally slow and costly compared to other processing routes but are often a ‘necessary evil’ as there is no other route to achieve required material purity and atomic structure. To hasten optimization of thin film materials, we are using laser systems to induce structural and compositional changes. The primary advantage of laser-based processing is extremely high throughput. For example, on a 2 cm x 2 cm sample, we can transform over 1,000 areas in a monolithic thin film in less than 1 minute. If we incrementally vary laser conditions and use automated systems to characterize the structure, composition, and optical/electronic properties of each area, we can identify the conditions yielding the properties of interest and understand trends yielding desired results. In addition to high throughput, rapid heating and cooling from laser processing yields metastable phases, inaccessible through conventional processing approaches. A few examples of this approach will be presented, including maximizing refractive index of an ultra-thin transition metal dichalcogenides, direct laser writing of devices in a single precursor film, and optimization of a TiO2-based photocatalyst material.