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Structural and morphological investigations on optimized nano-structured gold thin film (under vacuum ∼10 −3 Torr) are reported. The Au optimized thin film was deposited on 4 N polished and analytic grade p-type single crystal (111) Silicon wafer by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique, under a vacuum of about 10 −3 Torr at room temperature. The space resolved dynamics of the plume is studied by analyzing CCD images of plume. Average size of deposited nanoparticles is along the preferred (111) orientation is ∼ 20 nm using PLD technique. The deposited film is non-uniform with particle size within the range of 6.19 nm–19.62 nm. There is decrease in the value of dislocation line density. XRD and SEM investigations support each other.

Rare earth and transition metal doped (NdFeCo) thin films were fabricated on Si (100) substrate by pulsed laser deposition technique keeping the substrate at constant temperature of 300 °C. A KrF Excimer laser (248 nm, 20 ns) was used as an energy source for the deposition. Thin films were deposited without and under the influence of transverse magnetic field applied across the plume. The applied magnetic field was varied from 3 to 6 kOe. The deposited films were characterized by XRD, FESEM, VSM and SE (Spectroscopic Ellipsometry). The deposited films were amorphous in nature. All the films regardless of the applied magnetic field exhibit perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. The thickness of the thin films was found to increase monotonically from 166 to 266 nm with the increase in the applied external magnetic field. The saturation magnetization has a maximum value of 1682 emu/cc for the film deposited under 4.5 kOe magnetic field. The value of optical band gap energy for the same film is found to have a maximum value of 3.1 eV. The values of both the saturation magnetization and the band gap energy were decreased with the increase in the applied magnetic field.

The contribution of an external magnetic field on the deposition of BaFe12O19 thin film was investigated. For this purpose, two (one with applied field and another without field) thin films of BaFe12O19 were deposited on the C-plane oriented sapphire (Al2O3) substrate employing pulsed laser deposition technique. Crystallographic orientation and texture were determined using an X-ray diffractometer. The magnetic parameters were deduced from a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). A spectrometer was used to study the optical properties of the films. The structural results reveal the film to be predominantly single phase with C-plane orientation in both the cases. The film deposited with field, however, has bigger grain size and more perfection in crystallinity. The magnetic parameters show that the film deposited with the field has more remanence magnetization and higher coercive field. The diffuse reflectance of the film deposited with field is much higher due to the increased grain size and roughness.