Fabrication of three-component composition spread thin film with controlled composition and thickness

A novel method for the fabrication of three-component composition spread thin films was developed and used for the combinatorial exploration of materials. The composition and the thickness of the films could be precisely controlled during deposition. Any desired part of a complete ternary diagram could be deposited onto a single substrate by sequentially ablating target materials using a pulsed laser. Atomic mixing among compositions is achieved by adjusting the amount of target material deposited in each deposition step. The system could be especially useful in the search for new functional multi-component ultra-thin film materials, such as gate dielectrics.