Sputtering relies on a plasma (usually a noble gas, such as Argon) to knock material from a "target" a few atoms at a time. Since the process is not one of evaporation, the target can be kept at a relatively low temperature, making this one of the most flexible deposition techniques. It is especially useful for compounds or mixtures, where different components would otherwise tend to evaporate at different rates. Pulsed laser deposition systems work by an ablation process. Pulses of focused laser light vaporize the surface of the target material and convert it to plasma; this plasma usually reverts to a gas before it reaches the substrate.

Evaporation

There are three basic types of kinetics in an evaporation process. The conversion of source material to gaseous state, then the transport source atoms to substrate which is away at a distance h and finally the deposition atoms on substrate. The details of each of these steps are described below: