Pulsed laser deposition is a thin film deposition technique. It uses a pulsed laser beam to carry out a process of ablation in order to deposit materials as thin films.

Generally, a high vacuum is necessary for their operation. Pulses of focused laser light transform the target material directly from solid to plasma; the resulting plume of plasma is thrown perpendicularly away from the surface by thermal expansion. As expansion cools the plume, it will revert to a gas, but sufficiently high vacuum will allow momentum to carry this gas to the substrate, where it condenses to a solid state.