.

Applied Surface Science 143 1999 5666

Laser-ablated plasma for deposition of aluminum oxide films
A. Misra, R.K. Thareja
)
( ) Department of Physics and Centre for Laser Technology, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur-208 016 UP , India
Received 30 September 1998; accepted 17 December 1998
Abstract
Aluminum films are deposited in oxygen background at an ambient pressure of 100 mTorr by pulsed laser deposition
technique at various targetsubstrate distances. Two-dimensional images of the laser-ablated aluminum plumes were
.
recorded using Integrated Charged Couple Device ICCD camera system. The importance of these images in optimising the
targetsubstrate distance for the deposition of various films is reported. An attempt is made to correlate the characteristics of
the film with that of laser-ablated plume parameters. We observed that at a critical targetsubstrate distance, the films
obtained are oxygen-rich. q1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PACS: 52.50.Jm; 81.15.Fg; 81.15.yz
Keywords: Aluminum; Oxide films; Fast Photography; Plasma parameters
1. Introduction
In recent years, laser ablation has emerged as a
versatile technique for the deposition of various ma-
terials including semiconductors, high T supercon-
c
ductors, ceramics, ferroelectrics, metal and metal
compounds, polymer, biological material and refrac-
w x
tive material in the form of a film 13 . Laser
.
ablation deposition LAD technique is fairly simple,
inexpensive, free of contamination and fast as com-
pared to other conventional techniques. LAD can be
used to deposit films of any material irrespective of
)
Corresponding author. Tel.: q91-512-597989; Fax: q91-
512-590914; E-mail: thareja@iitk.ac.in
w x
their optical properties and stoichiometry 3 . The
w x
production of multicomponent films 4,5 and low
processing temperatures are among the other advan-
tages. Among the drawbacks are the appearances of
w x
particulates 6 , non-uniformity of thickness and small
area of deposition. Even though LAD has edge over
other techniques, parametric studies are still on to
optimise the process parameters such as targetsub-
strate distance, laser wavelength, irradiance, pulse
width and substrate temperature for deposition of
good quality films. Since the source of the films is a
laser generated plasma composed of neutrals and
w x
ionised atoms, molecules and other species 7 , it is
necessary to understand the mechanism of the plasma
formation and expansion. The exact nature of the
plasma process requires detailed quantitative data on
the composition and dynamics of the plume evolu-
0169-4332r99r$ - see front matter q 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
. PII: S0169- 4332 98 00930- 1
( ) A. Misra, R.K. TharejarApplied Surface Science 143 1999 5666 57
w x
tion as it propagates towards the substrate 8 . Saenger
w x
9 has reviewed a number of experimental findings.
The effect of various parameters such as target sur-
face topography, targetsubstrate distance, dimen-
sions of laser spot size and laser parameters, viz.,
wavelength, fluence, pulse width on the plume angu-
lar distribution in vacuum has been discussed by her.
w x
Several authors 914 have experimentally inves-
tigated the motion of plume in different ambient
gases at different pressures. Using Monte-Carlo sim-
w x
ulation, Kools 15 studied the effect of elastic colli-
sions between the target atom and low pressure gas
atoms, on the kinetic energy and spatial distributions
of the particles arriving at the substrate. Lindley et
w x
al. 16 have used holographic interferometry to in-
vestigate the expansion of the laser-ablated alu-
minum plumes. The expansion was studied in vac-
uum and in argon gas at various pressures. Aden et
w x
al. 17 have reported the formation of shock waves
on irradiation of aluminum targets with Nd:YAG.
w x
Kim and Kwok 18 have reported a pressure dis-
tance relationship for optimum quality films for
YBCO and PLZT for laser ablation in oxygen atmo-
sphere using blast wave theory. Several other re-
w x
searchers 1113,19 have used drag and shock mod-
els to explain the plume expansion. To define limits
w x
for the formation of shock, Dyer and Sidhu 20
studied experimentally the effect of pressure on the
formation of shock and concluded that at high pres-
sures the shock model is a better fit to experimental
w x
observations. Geohegan 11 and Wanniarachchi et
w x
al. 21 have shown that the drag model is more
suited at low pressures. Study of pulsed laser-ablated
plume in low ambient pressure of the order of few
mTorr is very important because these background
w x
pressures are generally used in LAD 22 . Since the
high velocity of the shock can deteriorate the quality
of the films, it is important to have knowledge of the
pressure and distance at which the shock formation
w x
takes place. Thareja and Dwivedi 23 have deposited
carbon films using LAD in presence of helium and
argon at various pressures and attempted to correlate
their formation with the characteristics of laser pro-
w x
duced carbon plasmas. Bjormander et al. 24 have
grown ferroelectricrsuperconducting heterostructure
on single crystal LaAlO . Perovskite La Ca -
3 1yx x
w x
MnO thin films were deposited by Gu et al. 25
3yd
.
on Mg 001 substrate and the films were analysed
for the effect of deposition conditions, such as laser
fluence, substrate temperature and oxygen pressure
on the growth behavior of films. Various techniques
w x
such as Raman spectroscopy 26 , Infrared spec-
w x w x
troscopy 27 , X-ray analysis 23 , Rutherford Back
. w x
Scattering RBS 28 , Scanning Electron Mi-
. w x
croscopy SEM 29 , etc., have been routinely used
to characterise the films, to get information on the
surface stoichiometry, constituent content, thickness,
w x
optical properties, etc. Ozegowski et al. 30 used
four different pulsed lasers to deposit and study the
influence of the laser parameters on plasma parame-
ter and on the surface morphology of the deposited
w x
films. Yakolev et al. 31 deposited PZT films by
laser ablation deposition and examined the films for
their homogeneity and thickness through a compara-
tive use of Raman and Infra-red spectroscopy.
w x
Labardi et al. 32 applied scanning force and friction
microscopy to ferroelectric films to investigate the
morphology and phase structure of ferroelectric films.
An important aspect of laser produced plasmas is
the characteristic luminous plume. The spatial, tem-
poral and spectroscopic dependence of the visible
plume are a consequence of, and provide insight
into, the processes of plume expansion in addition to
lasertarget, laserplume, plumeambient and
plumesubstrate interactions. Thus, photography has
emerged as one of the important diagnostic tools to
study various features of expanding plasma. Fast
photography using gated intensified ICCD has re-
cently become very popular for laser-ablated plasma
plume studies both in vacuum and gaseous back-
w x
ground 11,12 because of its high sensitivity. We
report the study of the expansion dynamics of the
laser-ablated aluminum plasma plume in different
ambient gas environment and at different pressures
using ICCD detector system. Time integrated, two-
dimensional images of laser-ablated plasma plume
are recorded with the ICCD system and are used to
obtain positiontime plots of the expanding plasma.
These plots are further used to compare with the
theoretically predicted values of that of shock and
drag models. Films are deposited at the predicted
targetsubstrate distances and are found to match
well. Deposited films are characterised using Scan-
.
ning Electron Microscopy SEM , Rutherford Back
.
Scattering RBS and Raman spectroscopy and the
correlation is discussed.
( ) A. Misra, R.K. TharejarApplied Surface Science 143 1999 5666 58
2. Experimental details
The experimental set up used is similar to the one
w x
used earlier 33 . A Q-switched Nd:YAG laser Spec-
.
tra physics DCR 4G pulse, operating at 10 Hz,
.
ls1.06 mm, 8 ns pulse width FWHM delivering
energy up to 1 J is focused by a spherical lens
.
f s60 cm on to a flat Al target. The focused spot
on the target was 260 mm. Target was continuously
translated in order to avoid crater formation. Side on
views of plume expansion of the overall visible
emission from the plasma plume was recorded with

gated, ICCD camera system Princeton Instruments,

.
ICCD-576Gr2 . The detector consists of Multi-
.
Channel Plate MCP with spatial response 200800
nm and 384=576 CCD array. In order to have a
better insight of the film deposition process, the
images were recorded at various time delays with
respect to the ablating laser pulse using a pulse
.
generator PG-200, Princeton Instrument and fixed
gain of MCP. Experiments were carried out in differ-
.
ent background gases He, Air and Ar and at differ-

ent ambient pressures. The laser irradiance used in

.
10
this experiment on the target was 2.35=10
Wrcm
2
. Films of aluminum were deposited on sili-
con substrate in oxygen atmosphere at 100 mTorr
pressure at different distances from the target surface
for 10 min each. Raman spectrum of the deposited
films was recorded using Spex-1877D Triplemate
system with a resolution of 2 cm
y1
.
3. Result and discussion
Side on view of the expanding plume is imaged
using ICCD camera system. The position of the
plume front is located by comparing the observed
plume front with the theoretical front. The evolution
of plume near the target surface is simulated follow-
w x
ing Singh and Narayans 35 hydrodynamic model.
It is assumed that the initial expansion is unaffected
by the presence of ambient gas. The effect of gas is
significant after a certain time when the collision
between the ambient gas and the plasma constituents
is appreciable. We have used the equations of motion
and the continuity to transform the expansion for
time dependent density, pressure and velocity into
force equations that gives the dynamics of the
. .
plumes maximum density boundary X t , Y t ,
..
Z t during isothermal expansion:
2
1 d X d X
X t q .
2
/
t dt dt
2
1 dY d Y
sY t q .
2
/
t dt dt
2
1 dZ d Z
sZ t q .
2
/
t dt dt
kT
0
s t Ft 1 .
m
where t is the laser pulse width and T is the
0
isothermal temperature of the plume. The initial
dimensions are of the order of 260 mm in transverse
direction depending upon focused spot, whereas in
the longitudinal direction, it is less than 1 mm.
After the termination of the laser pulse, the plasma
expansion is assumed to be adiabatic. Thus, equating
the plumes internal energy to the total isothermal
energy in plumes volume at the end of the laser
pulse, we arrive at:
d
2
X d
2
Y d
2
Z
X t sY t sZ t . . .
2 2 2
dt dt dt
gy1
kT X Y Z
0 0 0 0
s t )t 2 .
m X t Y t Z t . . .
where X , Y , Z are solutions for the plasma
0 0 0
boundary at the end of the isothermal region. The
equations are solved numerically using RungeKutta

iteration technique. For the initial expansion i.e., in

.
the isothermal region the spot size of the laser beam
.
on the target 260 mm in our case is taken to be the
boundary condition. The simulated velocities and
dimensions of isothermal regime are taken to be the
initial boundary conditions for adiabatic region. From
these simulations, one can evaluate the dimensions
of the plume at various time steps. We considered
the evaluation of Al-plume boundary at 50, 100, 200
and 500 ns in presence of ambient gases. The results
of simulation is shown in Fig. 1, where for times
.
F1 ns Fig. 1 inset the expansion is more in the X
and Y direction, while it is less in Z-direction. As
the time progresses, the expansion in Z-direction
( ) A. Misra, R.K. TharejarApplied Surface Science 143 1999 5666 59
Fig. 1. Computer-simulated Al-plume front along Z-axis for time delays of 50, 100, 200 and 500 ns. Inset is the computer-simulated plume
shape for time delay of 1 ns. T is the position of the target.

increases and after some time few ns after the

.
termination of laser pulse , the expansion in Z-direc-
tion is well beyond the expansion in X and Y-direc-
tions and is compared with the theoretical simulated
plume and is found to be in good correlation as
shown in Fig. 2. Fig. 2 shows an ICCD image taken
. Fig. 2. Comparison of computer-simulated plume front I and
ICCD image at time delay of 100 ns for laser-ablated Al-plume at
a pressure of 100 mTorr of air.
at 100 ns delay with respect to laser pulse and a
. .
simulated plume front using Eqs. 1 and 2 . Fig. 3
shows the intensity contour, the variation of intensity
as the plume progresses. Fig. 4 shows the variation
of plumes front edge with time at 10
y1
Torr pres-
Fig. 3. Intensity contour at 100 ns time delay at a pressure of 100
mTorr of air.
( ) A. Misra, R.K. TharejarApplied Surface Science 143 1999 5666 60
Fig. 4. Variation of position of plume front edge with time at 100 mTorr pressure of He, Ar, O and air.
2
sure of He, Ar, Air and O . From the slope of the
2
curve at different time delays, one can determine the
velocity of the expanding front.
Several theoretical investigations have been car-
ried out in the past to understand the formation and
w
evolution properties of the plasma 9,10,14,16,34
x
36 . The steps involved in the process being laser
interaction with target and energy absorption, evapo-
ration leading to vaporisation of target material, ab-
sorption of laser by vapor giving rise to highly dense
plasma, expansion of plasma thus formed and subse-
quent deposition on the substrate. To understand
plume dynamics in vacuum, several models have
w x
also been proposed 13,37 . The propagation of the
laser-ablated plume in gaseous ambient towards the
substrate is a complex hydrodynamic problem. In the
case of expansion in vacuum, the plume particles
collide with themselves resulting in the observed
w x
angular distribution 9 . In the case of expansion in
an ambient atmosphere, collision between the parti-
cles of the ambient gas and plume also takes place,
which attenuates and slows down the plume parti-
cles. Expansion in an ambient gas is studied using
w x
classical drag and shock model 13,37 . In shock
wave model, rapidly expanding plume behaves as a
piston which generates a shock wave in the ambient.
The ambient gas is compressed into a thin shell
between the shock and the plume front. If we con-
sider our expansion to be conical at earlier times
with vertex at the focusing point of the laser beam
and spherical at later times, the shock thickness
w x
13,38 is given by:
1r3

2g
R y1 for conical expansion
~ /
gq1 Ds

R gy1 r3 gq1 for spherical expansion . .

3 .
where D is the shock thickness, g is the specific
.
heat ratio of the vapor 1.21.3 , and R is the
position of the expanding front. The temperature and
w x
density 39 of the shocked region are given by:
2g gy1 .
2
T s M q1 T 4 .
s 0
gq1 gq1 .
gq1
r sr 5 .
s 0
/
gy1
( ) A. Misra, R.K. TharejarApplied Surface Science 143 1999 5666 61
.
where M is the mach number sVra , a is the
.
speed of sound, V can be estimated from Rt plots
is the velocity of the expanding front, T is the
0
background gas temperature, r is the density of the
s
shocked region and r is the density of the gas at
0
.
normal temperature and pressure NTP . From the
values of temperature and density of the shocked
gas, one can estimate the extent of diffusion. Diffu-
w x
sion coefficient 13 is defined as:
5r4
DsD T rT r rr 6 . . .
0 s 0 0 s
and diffusion range is given by:
1r2
D s 4Dt , 7 . .
r
where D is the diffusion range, t is the time. D for
r 0
He, Ar, air and O are 1.601, 0.169, 0.165 and 0.2
2
2 y1
w x
cm s , respectively 40 . The diffusion of the gas
into the compressed region increases with time. It is
necessary for the formation of shock between the
ambient and the ablated species that the compressed
region thickness should be significantly larger than
the mean free path. Since the mean free path l for
the case of oxygen atmosphere at a pressure P is
y3
.
ls5.95=10 rP Torr cm, it implies that the
shock is generated at later times at low pressures,
i.e., away from target surface and forms near to the
target for higher pressures.
The blast wave theory predicts the position of the
shock front R as:
1r5
2r5
Rsj E rr t 8 . .
0 0 0
where, j is a constant and depends upon specific
0
.
heat g , E is the laser energy and r is ambient
0 0
w x
density 37 . From the propagation distance R,
d Rrdt the speed of propagation can be estimated. It
.
follows from Eq. 8 that for a particular experimen-
tal condition j , E and r being fixed, R can be
0 0 0
written as Rsq
0.2
t
n
, where q is a constant. The
exponent n can be taken as a parameter, which can
be varied to fit the theoretical curve to experimental
0.2 n

data. Fig. 5 shows the fit of Rsq t shock

.
model to the experimentally observed data, one
notices that the model is best fitted for 0.22FnF
0.28 for 100 mTorr pressure of argon, oxygen and
air and ns0.47 for He. For ideal blast wave, one
0.2 n
. Fig. 5. Plot of Rsq t and experimentally-observed plume front location for laser ablated Al-plume at a pressure of 1
mTorr in presence of He, Ar, O and air.
2
( ) A. Misra, R.K. TharejarApplied Surface Science 143 1999 5666 62
expects ns0.4. The discrepancy observed in the
exponent n may be due to instability, which grows at
moderate laser intensities and high pressures. How-
ever, the simple shock model does not explain the
experimental observation that the plume propagation
will cease at a finite distance, as observed in ICCD
images in Fig. 6.
To explain the experimental observation of finite
propagation of the plume, we use drag model. In
drag model, plume is taken as an ensemble and is
assumed to experience a viscous force proportional
to its velocity in the background gas, where drdt
syb, with the speed of the ensemble and b
the damping coefficient. In other words, the plume
progressively slows down and eventually comes to
rest due to the drag force. The distance at which the
propagation ceases at a finite distance from the target
. . Fig. 6. ICCD images negative at various time delays ns for
laser-ablated plasma plume at a pressure of 100 mTorr of helium.
is called stopping distance or plume length. On
introducing this force term in equation of motion of
plume edge, the position of the plume edge is found
w x
to be 37 :
XsX 1yexp ybt 9 4 . .
max
where, X is the stopping distance of the plume
max
edge, and b is called slowingrdamping coefficient.
.
Eq. 9 can also be written as:
w
yt rt
0
x X t sX 1ye 10 . .
max
where X and b are related by X sV rb, V
max max 0 0
being the initial velocity at t s0 and t s1rb is the
0
time constant at which the velocity drops to 1re of
its initial value.
.
Fig. 7 shows fit of Eq. 9 to the experimentally
observed plume front which leads to the determina-
tion of X , the stopping distance. It is observed
max
.
that the stopping distance X of plume for the
max
ambient pressure of 1 mTorr is maximum, while it is
least for 100 Torr, in all ambient gas environments.
If we compare the stopping distances in terms of
background gas at same pressures, one observes that
.
the stopping distance in case of He 3.19 cm is
.
largest and is least for Ar 1.82 cm . While observ-
ing the images, one finds that as the pressure in-
creases, the stopping distance decrease and there is
an increase in intensity of the plume, this is due to
confinement of the plasma in a small region which
results in the increase in emission intensity. Hence, it
seems that one of the controlling parameters stop-
ping distance for defining the film characteristics,
can easily be estimated from real time observations
and classical drag model.
From Rt plots for the luminous front, Fig. 4, the
velocity of the expanding front is estimated to be
7.29=10
6
cmrs, 6.84=10
6
cmrs, 6.75=10
6
cmrs and 6.21=10
6
cmrs for He, air, O and Ar,
2
respectively, at 10
y2
Torr. The measured velocity is
used to calculate the vapor density, temperature and
pressure using the hydrodynamic relations of adia-
batic shock expansion. Assuming that vapor pressure
far exceeds the ambient pressure, which is true in our
w x
case, the maximum velocity attainable is given 41
by V :
max
V s2ar gy1 11 . .
max
( ) A. Misra, R.K. TharejarApplied Surface Science 143 1999 5666 63
. . . Fig. 7. Plot of Eq. 4 and experimentally-observed \ plume front location for laser-produced Al-plume at a pressure of 100
mTorr of air.
w .
1r2
x
where a is the speed of sound as gkT rm .
s
.
Eq. 9 is used to estimate the surface temperature T
s
of the target, here g is the specific heat ratio of the
vapor, m is the mass of the solid, and k the Boltz-
mann constant. Knowing the speed of the front at
different time from Rt plot and using the following
mass and momentum conservation equations, one
can determine r , P and T :
v v v
P s2r V
2
r 1qg 12 . .
v g v
T sP r Rr 13 . .
v v v
where, r denotes the density, P the pressure, T the
temperature, and R is the gas constant. The subscript
w x
v and g denote vapor and gas, respectively 42 . The
plasma pressure decreases with increase in time and
ambient pressures. Similarly, the vapor temperature
also decreases with increase in time and ambient

5
pressure. The vapor temperature ;2.089=10 K,
at 29 ns after the laser pulse in 100 mTorr of oxygen
.
pressure is less as compared to the temperature

6
;1.922=10 K at 29 ns after the laser pulse in
.
100 mTorr of oxygen pressure of the shock front for
all times and pressures, indicating that the tempera-
ture in the shocked region is more and is high
enough for chemical reaction to take place at the
edge, in case of metals in oxygen ambient giving rise
to metal oxides.
To sum up, it follows that plume particles eventu-
.
ally diffuse into the compressed region, Eq. 7 . The
temperature of the shocked front is higher than the
plasma vapor temperature for all times. Further, at
and after stopping distance, the gas particles also
diffuse into the compressed region. Thus, inside the
compressed region, due to high temperature and
presence of both the plasma and the gas particles,
there is a finite probability for the plasma particles to
undergo physical and chemical changes.
In order to verify the above, we deposited alu-
minum films in oxygen atmosphere at various tar-
.
getsubstrate distances 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 cm . The
distance of 2.0 cm corresponds to a distance where
the plume propagation will cease based on drag
.
model. The other two distances 1.0 and 3.0 cm are
chosen to compare the quality of the film with that
of 2.0 cm film. Fig. 8 shows typical SEM pho-
tographs. The films deposited at a distance of 1.0 cm
are denser as compared to the films deposited at 2.0
cm and 3.0 cm from the target. However, if one
( ) A. Misra, R.K. TharejarApplied Surface Science 143 1999 5666 64
Fig. 8. SEM photographs for the Al films deposited at 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 cm in oxygen ambient at a pressure of 1 mTorr.
.
observes at higher magnification =10,000 , the sin-
gle particle at 2.0 cm seems to be larger than the
particles at other two distances. Further, the films
deposited at 2.0 cm show a kind of cluster formation
due to reaction of particles with oxygen, which is not
observed at other distances. Fig. 9 shows a typical
RBS spectrum of the film deposited at 1.0 cm. The
thickness of the film deposited at 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 cm

are 3800 A, 2800 A and 1850 A, respectively. The
chemical composition of the film deposited at 2.0 cm
showed the composition of Al:O to be 2:3, implying
that background oxygen has reacted with the plasma
( ) A. Misra, R.K. TharejarApplied Surface Science 143 1999 5666 65
particles resulting change of chemical composition
of the film which may be responsible for formation
of clusters. While the film deposited at 1.0 and 3.0
cm showed no such compositional changes. The film
deposited at all three distances showed the formation
of SiO layer at the interface of the Si and Al. This
2
layer is formed most probably due to the presence of
Si substrate in oxygen ambient. Fig. 10 shows a
typical Raman spectra. Raman spectra taken of a
film for targetsubstrate distance of 2.0 cm showed
the formation of a band at 972 cm
y1
signifying
w x
aluminum oxide in the films 43 . The band at 972
cm
y1
is not observed for the films deposited at other
two distances. We are not very sure of the peak
observed at 1082 cm
y1
, maybe this is an overtone of
.
y1
Si-peak substrate which is observed at 521 cm .
The peak at 1082 cm
y1
is observed in all films. To
conclude the analysis based on SEM, RBS and Ra-
man spectroscopy suggest that at stopping distance
which define the plume length, one observes a change
in chemical properties of the film. The film thickness
at stopping distance is more than that of the films
deposited at distances larger than stopping distance,
while it is comparable to the films deposited at
distances less than the stopping distance, thus indi-
cating that ceramic films deposited at plume dis-
tances will never be oxygen-deficient. The velocity
of the expanding particles at stopping distances is
minimum and hence, the fear of deterioration of the
Fig. 9. RBS spectrum for the Al films deposited at 2.0 cm in
oxygen ambient at a pressure of 1 mTorr.
Fig. 10. Raman spectrum for the Al films deposited 2.0 cm in
oxygen ambient at a pressure of 1 mTorr.
substrate surface due to fast impinging plasma parti-
cles is also the least.
4. Conclusion
In this paper we have reported the results of
expansion of Al-plasma in different ambient atmo-
sphere and pressures. Fast photography using ICCD
is used to record time integrated images of the
propagating plasma plume. The evolution of the
observed expanding plasma plume compares well
with simulated plumes. The expansion of the laser-
ablated plume is explained in the light of the classi-
cal drag and shock models. The stopping distance,
plume length is determined using the two models.
Since the velocity at stopping distances is minimum,
the possibility of the film deterioration is the least.
The characterization of the films using SEM, RBS
and Raman spectroscopy suggest that the films de-

posited at the stopping distance are oxygen-rich in

.
our case and are of good quality. The finding of
deposition characteristics may have potential for the
growth of good quality metal-oxide, ceramic and
superconducting films.
Acknowledgements
Authors would like to thank Dr. M.S. Navati and
Mr. T. Som for their help in experimentation with
( ) A. Misra, R.K. TharejarApplied Surface Science 143 1999 5666 66
the Micro-Raman and RBS set up, respectively. One
of the authors, AM, wish to acknowledge UGC, New
Delhi for research fellowship.
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