Growth of Ti:sapphire thin films by pulsed laser deposition

A route to the growth of Ti:sapphire thin films is the pulsed laser ablation deposition technique. in this paper we describe a study of Ti:Al2O3 deposition on single crystal MgO substrates using ArF laser ablation of hulk target material in a low pressure oxygen environment. The matrix of processing parameters investigated was limited to laser fluences of 1 and 8 J cm(-2) oxygen pressures of 0.02 and 0.2 mbar and substrate temperatures of 300 and 1400 K. The films grown on high temperature substrates in low oxygen pressure exhibited the highest degree of crystallinity, the laser fluence having little effect under these conditions. XRD studies indicate that these films consist of a polycrystalline mosaic of alpha-Al2O3 Photoluminescence studies reveal that the films grown using the higher laser fluence have an emission intensity 10 times that of films grown at low fluence. The studies indicate the suitable combination of parameters for the effective growth of optically active thin films.