Thin-film deposition method assisted by mid-infrared-FEL

We propose the novel application of the mid-infrared (MIR) FEL to the thin-film fabrication process. During the application, a substrate on which a thin film is being fabricated by a conventional method is simultaneously irradiated by the MIR FEL. The MIR FEL induces the fabricated molecules into the excited state of the stretching vibration energy, when the photon energy of the MIR FEL corresponds to one of the molecules. Therefore, the method can assist the thin-film fabrication quasi-independent of the substrate temperature. The method has the advantages of application on a temperature sensitive substrate and selective fabrication due to the tunable wavelength of the MIR FEL. In order to realize the method, we developed two thin film fabrication devices; an MIR FEL assisted RF sputtering device and an MIR FEL assisted laser ablation deposition device. For the method, the intensity of the assisted MIR FEL is an important problem. Thus the cross-section of the MIR FEL intensity profile is shown and the propagation discussed.