Amorphous Gallium Produced By Pulsed Excimer Laser Irradiation

Abstract

ABSTRACTPure crystalline Ga films (α-Ga, β-Ga) have been irradiated at low temperatures (≤ 20 K) with an Excimer laser. By measuring the superconducting transition temperature Tc and the residual resistivity ≤o, the resulting Ga phases (α-Ga, β-Ga, a-Ga) can be identified.Both crystalline Ga phases can be transformed into the amorphous phase.The threshold energy density for the β→ a transition depends on the film thickness, whereas the α →. a transition occurs always at about 225 mJ/cm2 This behavior is in agreement with earlier observations that a-Ga can grow on top of the in-phase but not on the β-phase.The results of laser quenching are compared with other non-equilibrium techniques for the production of a-Ga, such as vapor quenching and low temperature ion iradiation.