PRE-HEATED SUBSTRATE EFFECTS ON MELT-MEDIATED LASER CRYSTALLIZATION OF NITI THIN FILMS Paper (M703)

Amorphous sputter-deposited NiTi thin films were subjected to pulsed, melt-mediated laser crystallization techniques to engineer their microstructure. The effects of laser processing of pre-heated films are examined. Laser processing of films at an elevated temperature has a significant effect on the rate with which solidification occurs and therefore may be used as an added parameter to control the resulting microstructure. It is seen that the temperature at which processing is carried out has significant implications for the resulting phase and microstructure, and therefore mechanical properties. Furthermore, the microstructural effects of varying incident laser energy density are examined via atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and x-ray diffraction (XRD), and mechanical/shape memory properties are characterized via nanoindentation