title: Synthesis of Novel Thin-Film Materials by Pulsed Laser Deposition
abstract: Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) is a conceptually and experimentally simple yet highly versatile tool for thin-film and multilayer research. Its advantages for the film growth of oxides and other chemically complex materials include stoichiometric transfer, growth from an energetic beam, reactive deposition, and inherent simplicity for the growth of multilayered structures. With the use of PLD, artificially layered materials and metastable phases have been created and their properties varied by control of the layer thicknesses. In situ monitoring techniques have provided information about the role of energetic species in the formation of ultrahard phases and in the doping of semiconductors. Cluster-assembled nanocrystalline and composite films offer opportunities to control and produce new combinations of properties with PLD.
authors.affiliation: D. H. Lowndes, D. B. Geohegan, D. P. Norton, and C. M. Rouleau are in the Solid State Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Post Office Box 2008, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6056, USA. A. A. Puretzky is at the Institute of Spectroscopy, Russian Academy of Sciences, Troitsk, Russia.
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Lowndes
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Geohegan
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Puretzky
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Norton
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Rouleau