Amorphous Ge-Bi-Se Thin Films: A Mass Spectrometric Study
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2019 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Scientific Reports |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | Full Text |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-55773-9 |
| Keywords | Mass spectrometry |
| Description | LA with TOFMS analysis of thin films as well as elemental mixtures of Ge-Bi-Se system produces many unary, binary and some ternary clusters. The thin films were prepared via rf magnetron co-sputtering using GeSe2 and Bi2Se3 targets. Six different compositions of thin films were examined, each one producing about 20 different positively and negatively charged clusters. These might be considered as fragments of local structure of studied materials that are present in plasma during thin films deposition. On the other hand, in the case of the elemental mixtures, a higher number (about 28) of clusters were generated at lower laser energy. Finally, structures of some selected binary and ternary clusters were calculated using DFT optimization. In conclusion, laser ablation time-of-flight mass spectrometry is considered as a useful analytical technique to study amorphous chalcogenide thin films in terms of identification of species present in the plasma phase when the material is exposed to laser pulses. The knowledge of stoichiometry of the species might help to obtain partial structural information of the thin films. Laser ablation of thin films and knowledge of plasma based on TOFMS analysis can also be generally helpful in understanding specific industrial processes such as laser surface treatment and laser additive manufacturing. |
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