Science

Thermal Laser Epitaxy publication list
CO2 laser heating publication list

Transition metal nitrides

The main challenges in the epitaxy of binary transition metal nitrides are the high substrate temperatures and the strong nitriding atmospheres required. The laser heating processes at the core of TLE are compatible with high NH3 background pressures. This enables high growth rates and yields nitride films of extremely high quality.

This work was recently published in Applied Physics Letters Materials.

Article

Homoepitaxial sapphire

The figure shows secondary ion mass spectrometry data of a homoepitaxial sapphire film grown by thermal laser epitaxy. The data reveal a lower level of impurities in the film compared to the substrate. This demonstrates the potential of TLE to realize ultraclean heterostructures.

This work was recently published in Applied Physics Letters Materials.

Article

Epitaxial metal films

Two recent publications find great benefits in using thermal laser epitaxy for the growth of high-quality epitaxial ruthenium and tantalum films. TLE enables the evaporation of these elements in extremely clean environments and the high substrate temperatures during the growth and or post-annealing result in films with high structural coherence. The image shows a cross-section of a ruthenium layer without any discernible surface and interface roughness.

Article Ru
Article Ta

Interface design beyond epitaxy

The graph shows a pole figure of a heterostructure with a symmetry-forbidden interface. The square lattice of SrTiO3 is bonded to the hexagonal lattice of sapphire. The direct bonding without the presence of a contamination layer was achieved by first annealing the sapphire surface at extreme temperature with a CO2 laser heating system, subsequently transferring a SrTiO3 membrane and finally annealing the heterostructure to form the interface.  

This work was recently published in Advanced Materials.

Article

Perspective oxide epitaxy

The main challenges for the epitaxy of high-quality oxide layers are identified as the high oxidization potentials needed to achieve many desired compounds, the high temperatures required for numerous oxide phases to form, and the high temperatures necessary to grow films in adsorption-controlled growth modes. To overcome these challenges, various possibilities exist. Thermal laser epitaxy and CO2 laser heaters are deemed especially promising in this regard, because with this technology growth in extreme environments is possible.

This work was recently published in Applied Physics Letters Materials.

Article

Sapphire Surfaces

Heating c-plane sapphire to a temperature of 1700 °C results in a perfect surface for subsequent epitaxy. These surfaces are characterized by atomically flat double-stepped terraces with widths exceeding 1 μm. The atoms on the surface rearrange in a singular in-plane orientation of the (√31x√31)R9° surface reconstruction, as shown in the reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) image on the right. The observation of up to 20 Laue circles indicates the high crystal quality of the surface.

This work was recently published in Advanced Materials.

Article

Evaporation of All Elements

We have explored the deposition of elemental metal films with TLE. So far we have succeeded in depositing films with thicknesses ranging from 1 to 500 nm on 2 inch Si wafers. All elemental sources could be evaporated in the same setup with growth rates between 0.01 and 1 Å/s by varying the laser power. Due to the inherent efficiency of the TLE process, significantly less power is required compared to high-temperature effusion cells and e-beam evaporators. A set of sample examples is shown below. The films are dense and homogeneous and have a very smooth surface morphology. These results show that laser evaporation is well-suited for the growth of complex compounds with excellent control.

Article

In situ surface preparation

Oxide substrate surfaces can be prepared simply by high-temperature annealing in the growth chamber. This removes the need for chemical treatments and ex situ annealing. The process takes only a few minutes. Specifically, the successful surface preparation of doped SrTiO3 (001), LaAlO3 (001), NdGaO3 (001), DyScO3 (110), TbScO3 (110), MgO (001), and Al2O3 (0001) surfaces is demonstrated.

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TLE publications

An overview of the key scientific publications about thermal laser epitaxy.
1The very first TLE paper
Description of the principle method and key features of the technology.
2019-05 / AIP Advances 9: Film deposition by thermal laser evaporation
2The TLE periodic table
Demonstration of thin film growth with 43 elements from the periodic table.
2021-02 / Journal of Laser Applications 33: Thermal laser evaporation of elements from across the periodic table
3Oxide evaporation
Demonstration of thin film growth of binary oxides.
2021-08 / Applied Physics Letters Materials 9: Thermal laser evaporation for the growth of oxide films
4Oxide epitaxy
Demonstration of epitaxial growth of metal oxide films NiO, VO2, and RuO2 on Al2O3 or MgO substrates.
2021-08 / Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A 39: Epitaxial film growth by thermal laser evaporation
5Ultrasmooth metal films
Ultrasmooth transparent metallic films on sapphire.
2022-09 / Thin Solid Films 758: Ultrasmooth graphene-coated metal thin films on sapphire grown by thermal laser epitaxy
6Metal sources in oxygen
A systematic, experimental study of the role of source oxidation on source evaporation.
2022-12 / Journal of Applied Physics 132: Thermal laser evaporation of elemental metal sources in oxygen
7Aluminum sources
Achieving stable deposition fluxes from aluminum sources in oxidizing environments.
2023-05 / Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A 41: Why thermal laser epitaxy aluminum sources yield reproducible fluxes in oxidizing environments
8Evaporation of carbon
The effectiveness of TLE in synthesizing a broad spectrum of carbon films.
2023-10 / Crystal Growth and Design 23: Thermal Laser Epitaxy of Carbon Films
9Perspective oxide epitaxy
A discussion of the implications of ongoing developments and the future of oxide epitaxy, focussing on TLE and CO2 laser substrate heating.
2024-04 / Applied Physics Letters Materials. 12: State of the art, trends, and opportunities for oxide epitaxy
10Ruthenium films on sapphire
Using TLE ruthenium films of unprecedented quality were grown. The three-step process involving high-temperature substrate preparation, low-temperature growth and high-temperature annealing is reminiscent of solid-phase epitaxy.
2024-07 / Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A. 42: Growth of high-quality ruthenium films on sapphire
11Tantalum films on sapphire
α-Tantalum films of unprecedented quality were grown at temperatures of 1050-1150 °C. The enhanced microstructure is expected to improve superconducting qubits and hydrogen sensing technologies.
2024-09 / Applied Physics Letters Materials. 12: α-Ta films on c-plane sapphire with enhanced microstructure
12Homoepitaxy of sapphire
Films grown by thermal laser epitaxy at temperatures of 1600 °C are atomically smooth, have a controlled termination, and are of outstanding crystallinity. Their chemical purity exceeds that of the substrates.
2024-09 / Applied Physics Letters Materials. 12: Adsorption-controlled growth of homoepitaxial c-plane sapphire films
13Silicon: flux stability and epitaxy
The twin-free epitaxy of silicon on sapphire is demonstrated. Furthermore, a flux stability of 0.3% has been achieved, indicating the potential of TLE for scaling towards production.
2024-10 / Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B. 42: Twin-free thermal laser epitaxy of Si on sapphire
14Nitride thin films
High quality binary nitrides are grown at high substrate temperatures using TLE. The key enabler is the stability of the laser source heating in an NH3 environment.
2025-01 / Applied Physics Letters Materials 13: Nitride thin films grown by thermal laser epitaxy
15Simulation of deposition rates
We develop a procedure to model the flux of a thermal laser epitaxy source reliably. Using the intrinsic reference of the melting point of the material, we achieve excellent agreement between model and experiments.
2025-04 / Journal of Physics D 58: Deposition rates in thermal laser epitaxy: simulation and experiment
 

CO2 laser heating publications

A selection of publications enabled by direct substrate heating using a CO2 laser.
1In situ termination of strontium titanate surfaces
The first example of using the high temperatures enabled by direct CO2 laser heating for the preparation of atomically smooth surfaces for epitaxy.
2018-03 / Applied Physics Letters 112: Independence of surface morphology and reconstruction during the thermal preparation of perovskite oxide surfaces
2Substrate surface preparation
Description of the advantages of our THERMALAS substrate heater for surface termination.
2020-03 / Applied Physics Letters Materials 8: In situ thermal preparation of oxide surfaces
3Investigation of the strontium titanate surface
A TiO2 double layer is found to be present on terminated SrTiO3 surfaces.
2022-03 / Applied Physics Letters 120: Engineering the stoichiometry of a TiO2-rich SrTiO3(001) surface
4Nanostructure self-assembly
Self-assembly of nanocrystalline oxide structures enabled by our THERMALAS substrate heating system.
2023-01 / Advanced Materials 35: Self-Assembly of Nanocrystalline Structures from Freestanding Oxide Membranes
5High-temperature grown buffer layers
The reduced dislocation density in the SrZrO3 buffer layers results in improved electron mobility in the electronically active materials.
2023-05 / Applied Physics Letters 122: Employing high-temperature-grown SrZrO3 buffer to enhance the electron mobility in La:BaSnO3-based heterostructures
6The surface of sapphire (0001)
The surface of sapphire reconstructs at high temperatures into a double-terrace structure with a single orientation of the surface reconstruction.
2024-03 / Advanced Materials 23: Long-Range Atomic Order on Double-Stepped Al2O3(0001) Surfaces
7Perspective oxide epitaxy
A discussion of the implications of ongoing developments and the future of oxide epitaxy, focussing on TLE and CO2 laser substrate heating.
2024-04 / Applied Physics Letters Materials. 12: State of the art, trends, and opportunities for oxide epitaxy
8Interface design beyond epitaxy
Membrane-based interface formation enables heterostructures with symmetry-forbidden interfaces. A crucial step in obtaining atomically sharp interfaces is high-temperature annealing using a CO2 laser.
2024-06 / Advanced Materials 24: Interface Design beyond Epitaxy: Oxide Heterostructures Comprising Symmetry-Forbidden Interfaces
9The various surfaces of sapphire
Atomically flat surfaces are prepared in situ for all relevant sapphire surface orientations.
2025-07 / Applied Surface Science 696: Morphology of various single faced sapphire surfaces prepared by rapid thermal annealing