Pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) has gained a great deal of attention in the past few years for its ease of use and success in depositing materials of complex stoichiometry. PLD was the first technique used to successfully deposit a superconducting YBa2Cu3O7-d thin film. Since that time, many materials that are normally difficult to deposit by other methods, especially multi-element oxides, have been successfully deposited by PLD.

The main advantage of PLD derives from the laser material removal mechanism; PLD relies on a photon interaction to create an ejected plume of material from any target. The vapor (plume) is collected on a substrate placed a short distance from the target. Though the actual physical processes of material removal are quite complex, one can consider the ejection of material to occur due to rapid explosion of the target surface due to superheating. Unlike thermal evaporation, which produces a vapor composition dependent on the vapor pressures of elements in the target material, the laser-induced expulsion produces a plume of material with stoichiometry similar to the target. It is generally easier to obtain the desired film stoichiometry for multi-element materials using PLD than with other deposition technologies.