Large area Pulsed Laser Deposition of SrVO3 thin films

Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) is a thin film deposition technique especially well adapted to binary or ternary oxides. Classically, PLD deposition was limited to small sample sizes (about 10 x 10 mm(2)) due to the small spatial extension of the plume. Being a hindrance for the application of PLD grown thin films in industrial applications, PLD machines allowing for larger deposition areas have been developed, by scanning the laser on a larger target and rotating the sample above the ablated area. This set-up adds other parameters, as for example the laser scan speed and the rotation speed to the typical deposition parameters, and we have used the new transparent conductor SrVO3 as a prototypical system to control the homogeneity of monocrystalline and polycrystalline thin films on a 4-inch area.