Thermal laser evaporation of elements from across the periodic table

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that thermal laser evaporation can be universally applied to all solid, non-radioactive elements, enabling high-rate thin film deposition with simple, crucible-free setups.

Contribution

It introduces a universal method for laser evaporation applicable to all solid elements, achieving high growth rates with minimal laser power and no crucibles.

Findings

Growth rates exceeding 1 Å/s achieved

Source temperature varies linearly with laser power

Crucible-free evaporation effective for most elements

Abstract

We propose and demonstrate that thermal laser evaporation can be applied to all solid, non-radioactive elements in the periodic table. By depositing thin films, we achieve growth rates exceeding 1 angstrom/s with output laser powers less than 500 W, using identical beam parameters for many different elements. The source temperature is found to vary linearly with laser power within the examined power range. High growth rates are possible using free-standing sources for most of the elements tested, eliminating the need for crucibles.