Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD)

In the PLD technique, a laser beam (frequently an excimer laser) is directed at a solid target. The interaction of the pulsed laser beam with the target produces a plume of material that is transported toward a heated substrate placed directly in the line of the plume. Multiple targets can be loaded inside the chamber on a rotating holder, which can be used to sequentially expose different targets to the laser beam, thereby enabling the in-situ growth of heterostructures and superlattices with relatively clean interfaces. The PLD system in our lab is used to grow thin-films of manganites. We have recently started optimizing the growth conditions of multiferroic thin films.

	PLD chamber and excimer laser
PLD chamber and controls	The plume during film deposition