An open-hardware pulsed laser deposition system with in-situ machined shadow masks.
PLD-SAP is a platform: an abstract set of capabilities plus a reference implementation (r1, the machine documented on this site, currently operational). The platform capabilities are:
- Pulsed laser deposition of metals and oxides from solid targets (1064 nm fibre laser ablation).
- ISO160 vacuum chamber as the standard process volume.
- SAP mechanism: shadow masks micromachined in situ on a tape, with coordinate-frame registration between machining and deposition — enabling registered, multimaterial, multilayer patterned deposition without breaking vacuum.
- Laser micromachining lithography (~20 µm minimum feature, no closed apertures) sharing the same laser source.
Because the galvo head sits on rails above the chamber, the machine doubles as a conventional galvo laser engraver when the head is slid aside — useful for cutting substrates and general lab fabrication, and a way to get value from the build long before the full PLD process is commissioned.
How this documentation is organised
- Platform — operating principle, architecture, interfaces between modules, and the reasoning behind the design.
- Module specifications — what each module must do, independent of any particular implementation, plus procurement guidance if you are starting from zero.
- Build r1 — step-by-step instructions and bill of materials for the reference implementation.
- Operation — software stack, calibration, safety, and measured results from r1.
Read this first: many r1 design choices — most visibly in the vacuum system — reflect what was available to us, not what is optimal. The module specification pages state the actual requirements abstractly and tell you what to buy or salvage if you are not constrained the way we were. Do not cargo-cult r1; satisfy the spec.
Status
r1 is operational and producing films. Development is documented publicly on Hackaday.io and a journal paper describing the system is in preparation.