Structural, chemical, and electrical characterization of indium nitride produced by pulsed laser ablation

The peculiar electronic characteristics of indium nitride offers great technological potential for novel device applications in several areas such as: multi-junction solar cells, terahertz emitters, chemical sensors, and light emitting diodes. Reactive pulsed laser ablation has been used to deposit indium nitride thin films for its versatility. The laser source employed has been a Nd:YAG (~8 ns, 532 nm, 10 Hz) performing the ablation in a RF-generated nitrogen plasma. Thin films have been deposited varying some parameters such as the substrate temperature, the nitrogen gas pressure, and the RF power. Structural (XRD) and chemical (XPS) characterizations have been performed. Electrical resistivity of the films has been evaluated to correlate structural and chemical properties to the electrical ones.