Deposition of fluoropolymer thin films by vacuum-ultraviolet laser ablation

Abstract

Crystalline thin films of polytetrafluoroethylene were deposited on Si(100) wafers by F2 laser (157 nm) ablation in 200 mTorr Ar gas atmosphere. X-ray photoemission spectra indicated that the composition of the deposited films was similar to the source material. The surface morphology of films deposited at room temperature contained numerous fibrous structures in size of 100–400 nm, but they were smoothed out at elevated wafer temperature of ∼370 K, while the crystalline feature was still maintained. The refractive index was ∼1.35 at 633 nm.