Femtosecond pulsed laser deposition of diamond-like carbon films: The effect of double laser pulses

The bonding structure of carbon films prepared by pulsed laser deposition is determined by the plasma properties especially the change of the kinetic energy. Using double laser pulses the ablation process and the characteristics of the generated plasma can be controlled by the setting of the delay between the pulses. In our experiments, amorphous carbon films have been deposited in vacuum onto Si substrates by double pulses from a Ti:sapphire laser (180 fs, l = 800 nm, at 1 kHz) and a KrF laser system (500 fs, l = 248 nm, at 5 Hz). The intensities have been varied in the range of 3.4 1012 to 2 1013 W/cm2. The morphology and the main properties of the thin layers were investigated as a function of the time delay between the two ablating pulses (0–116.8 ps) and as a function of the irradiated area on the target surface. Atomic force microscopy, spectroscopic ellipsometry and Raman-spectroscopy were used to characterize the films. It was demonstrated that the change of the delay and the spot size results in the modification of the thickness distribution of the layers, and the carbon sp2/sp3 bonding ratio.