Largest possible deviations from stoichiometry transfer during pulsed laser deposition

One of the major advantages of pulsed laser deposition (PLD) is the ability to transfer complex multicomponent materials stoichiometrically from a target to the growing film on a substrate. Nevertheless, in some systems small deviations from stoichiometry were found. In this paper, we show that it is possible to grow homogeneous alloy films with concentrations over an unprecedented large range of 0–97 wt% W from a single W80Cu20 target by just varying the laser fluence and additionally tilting the substrate during deposition. This is probably the largest deviation from stoichiometry transfer possible in a binary system.