Investigations on MoS2 plasma by infra-red pulsed laser irradiation in high vacuum

MoS2 targets were irradiated by infra-red (IR) pulsed laser in a high vacuum to determine hot plasma parameters, atomic, molecular and ion emission, and angular and charge state distributions. In this way, pulsed laser deposition (PLD) of thin films on graphene oxide substrates was also realized. An Nd:YAG laser, operating at the 1064 nm wavelength with a 5 ns pulse duration and up to a 1 J pulse energy, in a single pulse or at a 10 Hz repetition rate, was employed. Ablation yield was measured as a function of the laser fluence. Plasma was characterized using different analysis techniques, such as time-of-flight measurements, quadrupole mass spectrometry and fast CCD visible imaging. The so-produced films were characterized by composition, thickness, roughness, wetting ability, and morphology. When compared to the MoS2 targets, they show a slight decrease of S with respect to Mo, due to higher ablation yield, low fusion temperature and high sublimation in vacuum. The pulsed IR laser deposited MoSx (with 1 < x < 2) films are uniform, with a thickness of about 130 nm, a roughness of about 50 nm and a higher wettability than the MoS2 targets. Some potential applications of the pulsed IR laser-deposited MoSx films are also presented and discussed.