Investigation of deposition rate, liquid droplets and surface morphology of zirconium films deposited by pulsed laser ablation

The effects of laser fluence on the surface morphology of zirconium films grown onto Si (100) by pulsed laser deposition are investigated. We found that the average nanoparticle size and the root mean square (RMS) roughness of Zr films increase with increasing laser fluence. The presence of droplets on the surface of deposited films, which is one major shortcoming of pulsed laser deposition (PLD), was studied at different laser fluences, pulse repetition rates, and substrate temperatures. In this paper, the distribution of droplets was well investigated in detail. In order to have more control of the deposition process, we investigate the influence of deposition time, laser fluence, and pulse repetition rate on the deposition rate. The research work in this paper lays the foundation for further obtaining the fine characteristics of Zr thin films.