The structure of metallic alloys grown by pulsed KrF laser deposition
is examined by x-ray diffraction and compared with results from litera
ture on sputtered and evaporated films. In general, the phases and str
uctures obtained are similar, while laser deposited films often exhibi
t unusually enlarged lattice parameters in direction of growth, small
grain sizes, larger extensions of the single-phase regions and sometim
es better alignment of the grains. These differences can be explained
by the approximately 10(5) times higher instantaneous deposition rate
of the pulsed laser ablation process and the high kinetic energy of th
e deposited particles of up to more than 100 eV. (C) 1995 American Ins
titute of Physics.