Investigations concerning the development of a chemical vapour deposition process for the structures deposition of titanium nitride coatings onto tool steel at low substrate temperatures are presented. In order to stimulate local film growth of hard coatings, excimer and argon ion laser beams were used respectively. In the experiments with the excimer laser, the beam projection method was used. The TiNx coatings were deposited from the precursor gas tetrakis-(dimethylamido)-titanium (Ti(N(CH3)2)4), in a reactive atmosphere of nitrogen and hydrogen at the excimer wavelengths 248 nm and 351 nm in combination with an additional r.f. or d.c. discharge. Experiments using an argon ion laser were carried out with a focused laser beam, where lateral film growth was induced by laser scanning. In particular, the deposition of TiNx from TiCl4N2H2 and TiCl4NH3 gas mixtures was inves tigated.

Investigations concerning the laser-induced chemical vapour deposition of Mo, W, Co and TiSi2 conductive thin film structures from Mo(CO)6, W(CO)6, Co2(CO)8, TiCl4 and SiH4 using a direct writing method are presented. SiO2 thin films were deposited from SiH4 and N2O in a large area deposition process stimulated by an excimer laser by using a parallel beam configuration.