Growth and magnetism of metallic thin films and multilayers by pulsed-laser deposition

Pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) is a powerful method to grow thin films and multilayers of complex materials such as transition metal oxides. In this case, the most cited advantage of PLD is the simplicity of preserving the stoichiometry of the target material. Recently, there are many reports showing that PLD can significantly improve the growth of even simple metallic thin films/multilayers. Here it is the ultrahigh instantaneous deposition rate and the high kinetic energy of PLD that play the most crucial roles. The improved growth, in particular for the first several monolayers, provides great opportunities to design artificial thin film structures that have promising physical properties. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.