Pulsed laser deposition of thin metallic alloys

The pulsed KrF excimer laser ablation was applied for the preparation of thin metallic alloys. Above an ablation threshold of about 5 J/cm2, an explosive evaporation of the target material occurs leading to high deposition rates of up to 3 nm/s and a stoichiometry transfer between the target and the deposited film. The surfaces of the grown amorphous and polycrystalline films are smooth except for a small number of droplets. The pulsed laser ablation was found to be an attractive alternative to other film deposition techniques, not only for high-temperature superconductors, semiconductors, and insulators, but also for metallic alloys.