Effect of Pulse Frequency on Surface Morphology and Microstructure of Zr Films Prepared by Pulse Laser Deposition

Zr films have been successfully deposited on Mo substrate by pulsed laser deposition(PLD).The microstructure and morphology of the as-deposited films were examined by grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction(GIXRD), scanning electron microscopy(SEM) and atomic force microscopy(AFM). The results show that the dimension and density of droplets increase with increasing pulse frequency. In the range of 6 to 20 Hz, the average deposition rate decreases with increasing pulse frequency. Under the same conditions, the average nanoparticle sizes of Zr films deposited on Mo increase and then decreases with increasing pulse frequency. Through XRD analysis, it follows that the higher pulse frequency is beneficial to the higher degree of crystallinity of Zr films. However, the pulse frequency has no significant effect on the preferential orientation of crystal planes of the deposited films.