Integrated UHV Cluster for Pulsed Laser Deposition and Sputtering of Thin Films

The Laboratory of Inorganic Chemistry at ETH Zurich plans to procure an integrated UHV cluster for pulsed laser deposition and sputtering of heterostructures containing oxide and metallic layers. The system will enable materials synthesis on oxide substrates up to 10 x 10 mm2 in area. It shall comprise a PLD chamber, a sputtering chamber, a central UHV transfer/handling chamber, and a load-lock for sample and PLD target-carousel exchange without venting the process chambers. All chambers must have base pressures below 1 x 10-7 mbar. The PLD chamber must include a KrF excimer laser, in-situ high-pressure RHEED and be suitable for routine high-temperature epitaxial oxide growth around 1100 °C. The sputtering chamber must allow DC and RF magnetron sputtering of metallic and oxide layers, including reactive sputtering in Ar/O₂ atmospheres, with substrate heating up to at least 700 °C using a carrier concept compatible with PLD. The system must allow sample transfer to an external UHV vacuum suitcase, and retain UHV-compatible ports for future expansion of the cluster. Further details see specification document.