Abstract. We use tunable UV laser light in the region 200-320 nm, produced by frequency doubling the output of a dye laser, for the decomposition of organometallic compounds. This method has been applied to TMA, trimethylaluminum AI(CH3) 3. Only the TMA monomer absorbs UV light for 2 > 220 rim. TMA decomposes by one-photon absorption mainly into two channels: aluminum atoms A1 plus organic fragments, and aluminummonomethyl A1CH3 molecules plus organic fragments. The ratio [A1]/[A1CH3] is wavelength dependent. We present a mechanism to explain the photolysis of trimethyl compounds of group III elements (A1, Ga, In).
PACS: 81.15, 82.50Organometallic compounds are widely used as a source of elements generated upon exposure to energy, which may be thermal or energetic beams in the form of photons [1-10], electrons [11,12] or ions [13][14][15][16]. We describe an experiment, in which we use tunable UV laser photons of precisely defined energy for the decomposition of gaseous organometallics, namely AI(CH3)3. Our results show how organometallics of the trimethyl type (A1, Ga, In) interact with UV (laser) light.