The pulsed laser deposition is now routinely used for the growth of a variety of oxide materials in thin film form. Superconducting, ferroelectric, magnetic or biocompatible oxide films are easily grown in this way. Epitaxial films, multilayers or superlattices based on various oxide materials have been also realized using this deposition method. The quality of the oxide films grown by the pulsed laser deposition technique depends upon the various phenomena which occur during their formation. Thus, we discuss in this paper the influence of the precise growth conditions on the atomic composition, surface morphology, structural and chemical nature of the pulsed laser deposited films. A special attention has been paid to the problem of the epitaxial growth of BiSrCaCuO and BaTiO3 films on MgO single crystal substrates.
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