Laser Induced Chemical Vapor Deposition

Abstract

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a widely used technique for the production of thin films of metals, semiconductors, and insulators [1]. In the standard procedure the chemical reaction is thermally activated near or on the hot surface of the substrate, where deposition takes place. Normally, the substrate is directly and uniformly heated and one obtains an extended uniform film of the deposited material. In contrast to this standard CVD technique, laser-induced chemical vapor deposition (LCVD) allows local deposition of materials within the focus of a laser. Therefore, LCVD may become an alternative method in cases where at present material patterns are produced by standard CVD techniques and photolithographic methods.. While the production of microstructures according to these standard techniques requires several different steps, LCVD allows one-step deposition or direct writing of structures with lateral dimensions down to at least 1 µm. Because of the high deposition rates achieved in pyrolytic LCVD, the production of three-dimensional structures of micron size is also possible.