The use of lasers for surface annealing, heating and/or damage has become a routine practice in the study of materials. Lasers have been closely looked at as an annealing technique for silicon and other semiconductors. They allow for local heating from a beam which can be focused and tuned to different wavelengths for specific tasks. Pulsed dye lasers allow for short, quick bursts which can allow the sample to be rapidly heated and quenched. This short, rapid heating period may be important for cases where diffusion of impurities or dopants may not be desirable.At Northwestern University, a Candela SLL - 250 pulsed dye laser, with a maximum power of 1 Joule/pulse over 350 - 400 nanoseconds, has been set up in conjunction with a Hitachi UHV-H9000 transmission electron microscope. The laser beam is introduced into the surface science chamber through a series of mirrors, a focusing lens and a six inch quartz window.
PALS laser energy transfer into solid targets and its dependence on the lens focal point position with respect to the target surface