Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD)

Pulsed laser ablation or Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) is a physical vapor deposition (PVD) technique, which involves focusing a high-power laser onto a target containing the chemical species of the material to be deposited. The target and substrate are located in a vacuum frame or under a reactive atmosphere such as O ₂ . This technique can be used to obtain amorphous, polycrystalline, textured or epitaxial deposits. In the latter case, PLD is commonly referred to as Laser-MBE in reference to the Molecular-Beam Epitaxy technique. One of the major advantages of PLD is the ability to rapidly explore new materials, thanks to the low constraints on the size and quality of the starting target, and the small number of parameters to be optimized.

In this article, after a brief history, we first describe the mechanisms involved in PLD, the experimental set-up and the advantages and disadvantages of PLD. Next, we detail the most important parameters in this type of deposition, before outlining some advanced in situ techniques such as RHEED (Reflection High Energy Electron Diffraction), SHG (Second Harmonic Generation), combinatorial deposition and large-area deposition. Finally, some examples of deposited materials are presented, including oxides, nitrides, metals, carbonaceous materials and biomaterials, polymers and organic molecules.

At the end of the article, readers will find a glossary and a table of acronyms.