Laser-induced forward transfer: the behavior of the ablated thin film in gas phase

Laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT) is available for the fabrication of micron-sized thin films. This method has many advantages of fast deposition rate, simplicity, micron-sized pattern fabrication, and so on. Recently, a capacitor made of BaTiO/sub 3/ was fabricated by LIFT, and investigations for practical use is promoted. The film properties were investigated for different donor film thickness, laser pulse width, laser fluence and so on. On the other hand, the behavior of the ablated thin film in the gas phase, which effect the film qualities as thickness or divergence, has not been well understood. In this paper, the behavior of the ablated gold thin film on SiO/sub 2/ in LIFT process has been investigated by time-resolved imaging technique, together with the SEM photographs of the deposited films.