Laser-induced evaporation, reactivity and deposition of ZrO2, CeO2, V2O5 and mixed Ce-V oxides

It has been found that pulsed laser ablation has good potentiality for the deposition of ZrO2, CeO2, V2O5 and mixed Ce-V oxides which are very important materials for their application in optics and electrochromic devices. Laser induced compositional changes of thin ®lms in the ablation and deposition processes of these materials have been explored. The effect of the oxygen gas pressure on the thin ®lm composition has been examined. The congruency of the process has been treated on the basis of a thermal mechanism of evaporation±decomposition of the compounds. An attempt to model the processes by means of a thermodynamic approach is reported. # 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.