State-of-the-art reactive pulsed laser deposition of nitrides

In this paper we report on the present status of thin-film nitride compounds (CN, TiN, AlN, SiN. BN, GaN) growth by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). PLD and reactive PLD (RPLD) appear to be very efficient methods for producing high fluxes of atoms, ions, molecules and clusters suitable to achieve the epitaxial growth of thin films. The optimization of various processing parameters, such as laser power density, substrate temperature, type and pressure of reactive gas, repetition rate and laser pulse duration required for the growth of high-quality nitride films is discussed. The main results of laser produced plasma diagnostics are presented. Particular attention is paid to significant contradictory results reported in literature concerning the nitride formation and deposition processes. Problems associated with characterization methods applied for the analysis of the deposited nitride films are also discussed.