On the orientation independence of inverse pulsed laser deposition

Carbon nitride films have been deposited in the inverse pulsed laser deposition (IPLD) geometry by ablating a graphite target in nitrogen atmosphere while the spatial orientation of the target (and substrate) normal was varied. Two different orientations were tested, in one of which the axis of the plasma plume was made to point downwards, imposing the maximum gravitational barrier on the ablated species and make them move against the gravitational field while growing the film in order to verify the extent of a possible orientational effect. The thickness distribution of films obtained in different orientations was sampled along their axes of symmetry by stylus profilometry. The results indirectly proved that the kinetic energy of the species responsible for building the IPLD films surpassed the effect of gravitational field, even in the outer regions of the films, where the ablated species were believed to be thermalised. Evidences are also provided that utmost care should be taken to keep experimental conditions, like process pressure, spot size, etc., constant in order to get reproducible results.