Laser-Assisted Deposition of Boron Nitride Thin Films and Nanotubes

Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) is at present one of the most interesting technique for thin film deposition. In the PLD process a film is formed by ablating a solid target with energetic laser pulses and collecting the material of interest on a substrate placed a few cm from the target. According to its ability to carry the stoichiometry from the target to the substrate and to its relatively high growth rate (~0.1 nm/pulse), PLD is an attractive technique for compound thin film deposition. This technique offers the possibility of depositing thin films on room-temperature or low-temperature substrates, due to the high energy of the species forming the laser plasma plume expanding from the target to the substrate. This book reviews research on the depositon of c-BN films by using PLD, ion-assisted PLD and other laser-assisted procedures.