Laser ablation using high repetition rate Cu/HBr laser

The application of a home made Cu/HBr laser for pulsed laser deposition is investigated. This laser operates at 15 KHz repetition rate with 50 ns pulses of two wavelengths (578 and 510 nm) and with a maximum total power of 100 W. The parameters which define the ablation condition and the specific plasma features are determined and compared to those obtained using a Nd:YAG laser. The effects of including a magnetic field oriented perpendicularly to the target plane in the plasma expansion region are examined. With the Cu/HBr laser the frontal deposition rate is 4 times higher than that obtained with the Nd: YAG laser, increasing up to 40 times when the magnetic field is included in the set-up. However, the ablation process has a duration of 30-40 s and decreases drastically at longer times. © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.