Deposition of optical thin films by pulsed laser assisted evaporation.

Thin films of several refractory metal oxides and Ge were deposited by pulsed laser evaporation using a TEA CO(2) laser. Films deposited on ambient temperature substrates had a polycrystalline microstructure. Ge films deposited on 300 degrees C substrates were single crystalline. The refractive indices of these films were higher than indices of films deposited by conventional evaporation techniques and were bulk values for HfO(2) and ZrO(2). The crystalline microstructure and high packing density of the films were attributed to the effect of energetic ions in the laser-induced plasma.