ABSTRACT
The flexibility of the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) set-up offers the researcher a large freedom of choice in target material, ablation characteristics, target-substrate geometry, ambient gas and its pressure, and substrate temperature. All these parameters influence plasma formation, film growth, and film properties. Deposition parameters can be varied over several orders of magnitude. In particular, the ambient pressure is known for its large dynamic range of more than seven orders of magnitude. Furthermore, the kinetic energies of species arriving at the substrate surface can be tuned over three orders of magnitude (0.1–400 eV). The large dynamic ranges of deposition parameters result in different regimes of ablation and deposition. Due to powerful lasers with short pulse lengths, high laser power densities can be realized. This makes the ablation of a wide range of materials possible.
