Thin films of advanced oxidic materials obtained by pulsed laser deposition

Thin films of complex oxides have been deposited by pulsed laser ablation, starting from glass targets. Glass oxide targets were prepared by a non-conventional wet method and consisted of a matrix having the composition: Li2O, BaO, Al2O3, La2O3 and P2O5, respectively, non-doped and doped with Nd2O3. The films were deposited on silicon substrates using the fourth harmonic of a Nd:YAG laser (266 nm), in an oxygen background atmosphere. The influence of the deposition parameters on the morphological and optical properties of the oxide films was particularly investigated. IR absorption spectroscopy, optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy were used to characterize the targets and the deposited thin films.