Spatial and temporal mapping of Al and AlO during oxidation in pulsed laser ablation of LaAlO3

We present the first spatio-temporal mapping of two simultaneously present species in a plasma used for pulsed laser deposition. We apply laser induced fluorescence spectroscopy (LIF) to map ground state populations of Al and AlO in plasma plumes generated by ablation of LaAlO3 in an O2 or Ar atmosphere. Around a specific distance from the target, we observe Al vanish simultaneously with the turnup of AlO. This can be assigned to the oxidation of Al in the background atmosphere occurring after a sufficient slowing of the expanding Al front. This is consistent with the absence of such effects when argon is taken as background. A quantitative evaluation of data promises to reveal important dynamical reaction and deposition parameters for identification of the origin of specific properties of PLD grown films such as 2-dimensional conductive interfaces.