Thermal Laser Epitaxy for Ultraclean Heterostructures

We have developed a new thin-film deposition technique that is especially suited to the growth of an extremely wide range of heterostructures with atomic precision. Thermal laser epitaxy (TLE) uses chemical elements as sources, which are evaporated with continuous-wave lasers [1]. The lasers’ virtually arbitrary power density allows for the evaporation of practically all elements of the periodic table in the same setup [2]. Furthermore, a wide range of elements has been grown in oxygen environments up to pressures as high as 10^-2 mbar, yielding films of binary oxides [4,5]. In addition, extremely clean oxide surfaces can be prepared with the use of a CO₂ laser substrate heater that enables temperatures (<i>T</i>) up to 2000 °C [5]. Here, I will introduce the advantages of TLE for epitaxy and focus in detail on the epitaxy of ultraclean oxide heterostructures. <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/><b>References</b><br/> <br/>[1] W. Braun, J. Mannhart, AIP Adv. 9 (2019) 085310<br/>[2] T.J. Smart, et al., J. Laser Appl. 33 (2021) 022008<br/>[3] D.-Y. Kim, J. Mannhart, W. Braun, Appl. Phys. Lett. Mater. 9 (2021) 081105<br/>[4] D.-Y. Kim, J. Mannhart, W. Braun, J. Vac. Sci. Tech. A 39 (2021) 053406<br/>[5] W. Braun, et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. Mater. 8 (2020) 071112