Ablation plasma ion implantation

Summary form only given, as follows. Experimental and theoretical research are underway to investigate a new technique for implanting ions generated from solid targets: ablation-plasma-ion-implantation (APII). Ablation plasmas are generated by an excimer laser incident on metal targets. The ablation laser is a KrF excimer laser (Lambda Physik Compex 205) which generates up to 600 mJ pulses at a repetition rate up to 50 Hz. The initial ablation targets are pure Fe and substrates are silicon wafers. Preliminary APII experiments pulse the substrate to negative voltages up to 10 kV. The properties (e.g., adhesion, morphology) of thin films deposited by laser ablative deposition are compared to films deposited with ablation-plasma-ion-implantation. Theoretical research is utilizing 1-dimensional particle in cell codes (e.g., XPDP1) to investigate the problem of ion extraction and acceleration from a moving sheath.