Nano Fabrication of Functional Materials by Pulsed Laser Ablation

Nanostructured materials arecurrently receiving much attention because of their unique structural andphysical properties. Research has been stimulated by the envisagedapplications for this new class of materials in electronics, optics, catalysisand magnetic storage since the properties derived from nanometer-scalematerials are not present in either isolated molecules or micrometer-scalesolids. This study presents the experimental results derived fromthe various functional materials processed in nano-scale using pulsed laserablation, since those materials exhibit new physical phenomena caused by thereduction dimensionality. This presentation consists of three mainparts to consider in pulsed laser ablation (PLA) technique; first nanocrystallinefilms, second, nanocolloidal particles in liquid, and third, nanocoating fororganic/inorganic hybridization. Firstly, nanocrystalline films weresynthesized by pulsed laser deposition at various Ar gas pressures withoutsubstrate heating and/or post annealing treatments. From the controlof processng parameters, nanocystalline films of complex oxides and non-oxidematerials have been successfully fabricated. The excellentcapability of pulsed laser ablation for reactive deposition and its ability totransfer the original stoichiometry of the bulk target to the deposited filmsmakes it suitable for the fabrication of various functionalmaterials. Then, pulsed laser ablation in liquid has attracted muchattention as a new technique to prepare nanocolloidal particles. Inthis work, we represent a novel synthetic approach to directly producehighly-dispersed fluorescent colloidal nanoparticles using the PLA from ceramicbulk target in liquid phase without any surfactant. Furthermore, novel methodbased on simultaneous motion tracking of several individual nanoparticles isproposed for the convenient determination of nanoparticle sizedistributions. Finally, we report that the GaAs nanocrystals issynthesized successfully on the surface of PMMA (polymethylmethacrylate)microspheres by modified PLD technique using a particle fluidizationunit. The characteristics of the laser deposited GaAs nanocrytalswere then investigated. It should be noted that this is the first successfultrial to apply the PLD process nanocrystals on spherical polymermatrices. The present process is found to be a promising method fororganic/inorganic hybridization.