Laser Induced Synthesis of InN in NH3 atmosphere: Diagnostics of intermediate and InN thin film deposition

Reactive Pulsed Laser Ablation and Deposition (RPLAD) has been applied to the production on InN thin films. Emission spectroscopy and Time of Flight (TOF) mass spectrometry have been used for the diagnostics of the intermediates formed by reaction of indium atoms and ammonia. The ionization potential (IP) of In(NH3) cluster has been measured and a strong red shift respect to the IP of bare indium atom has been found. This result indicates that the lone pair of the ammonia strongly interacts with the empty 5p orbitals of In and that the cation In(NH3)(+) is more strongly bounded than the corresponding neutral complex. The InN thin films produced through the reaction of In atoms and NH3 have been characterized by conventional techniques.