Work

Femtosecond laser burst ablation of vanadium for pulsed laser deposition

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Femtosecond pulsed laser deposition (fs-PLD) is known for its versatility in materials and its near-stoichiometric transfer of complex target compositions. However, this ultrafast ablation inherently promotes explosive material removal, leading to nanoparticle contamination in the deposited thin films. Bridging this trade-off between compositional fidelity and film smoothness remains a critical challenge. This work investigates both theoretically and experimentally burst-mode fs-PLD of metallic vanadium. Typical single pulse operation is compared with GHz (picosecond delay), MHz (nanosecond delay), and bi-burst configurations at a pulse duration of 200 fs. Time-resolved plasma imaging combined with scanning electron microscopy of the deposited films establishes correlations between plasma dynamics and resulting film morphology. Bi-burst configurations yield the smoothest films, with nanoparticles nearly absent. This regime also exhibits stronger atomic emission than all other regimes. MHz burst operation generates high-intensity plume exhibiting pronounced odd–even oscillations in black-body emission, which correlate with nanoparticle density in the films. In contrast, GHz bursts produce faster plume dynamics with reduced black-body emission, yielding progressively smoother films. Burst-mode fs-PLD thus shifts the ablation mechanism from explosive fragmentation toward more controlled vaporization, enabling surface morphology comparable to nanosecond PLD.

Source: Surfaces and Interfaces

DOI: 10.1016/j.surfin.2026.110639