A universal value of effective annealing time for rapid oxide nucleation and growth under pulsed ultraviolet laser irradiation

Abstract

The effective annealing times (t_eff) for nucleating various oxides from an amorphous matrix under nanosecond pulsed laser irradiation have been determined. The oxides, which had perovskite, bixbyite, anatase, and pyrochlore structures, showed similar t_eff values for crystal nucleation of around 60 ns. This indicates that the effective annealing time is a good universal value for evaluating pulsed laser-induced oxide nucleation. Time-resolved resistance measurements of tin-doped In₂O₃ thin films under pulsed laser irradiation showed that crystal nucleation and rapid growth proceeded spontaneously with an instantaneous temperature rise.