Pulsed Laser Deposition of Thin Films

Rating:
Summary: Summarises the field well
Review: Though this book is now ten years old, its papers should still hold up well. It surveys the then new field of making thin films by using pulses of high intensity laser light. The papers are written by experts in these methods.

Nucleation dynamics and how a film can grow under deposition pulses are explained in one chapter.

Several chapters also discuss the related subject of laser-induced ablation of surfaces. Studies are summarised of the characteristics of the ablated material. In some ways, ablation can be considered the inverse process to deposition.

One attraction of the deposition methods is to apply these in the construction of high temperature superconducting films. Typically, these are complex oxides, of 4 or more elements. The commercial viability of these materials depends in no small part on being able to manufacture them cheaply. The book has a chapter expanding on the praticality of this application.