The importance of pressure and mass ratios when depositing multi-element oxide thin films by pulsed laser deposition

Angle-resolved thickness and compositional analyses of BaTiO3, CaTiO3, La0.4Ca0.6MnO3, EuAlO3, and LiMn2O4 were performed to study the influence of the background gas pressure when depositing multi-elemental oxide materials. With increasing gas pressure the typical forward directed deposition changes to a constant thickness at all angles. Compositional changes with respect to the target show dependencies on (in order of influence): target material, deposition pressure, and angular location (substrate size). A linear relationship was found between target mass-ratios and compositional deviations. This can lead to compositional deviations of up to 70% for large mass-ratios in certain pressure regimes.