Pulsed laser deposition of semiconductor-ITO composite films on electric-field-applied substrates

The DC electric-field effect on the crystallinity of II–VI semiconductor in composite systems has been investigated for CdS–ITO films fabricated via alternative pulsed laser deposition (PLD) of CdS and indium tin oxide (ITO) on electric-field-applied substrates. The alternative laser ablation was performed under irradiation of ArF excimer laser in mixture gas of helium and oxygen. The application of electric-field facilitated the preferential crystal-growth of CdS in nanometer scale at low pressure, whereas all the films grown without the field were amorphous. There is a large difference in the crystallization between the films grown on field-applied and heated substrates; the latter showed the crystal-growth with random orientations. This difference indicates that the existence of electric-field has an influence on the transformation from amorphous to crystalline phase of CdS. The driving force for the field-induced crystallization is also discussed in the light of the Joule heat.