LaFeAsO 1-x F x thin films were deposited successfully on (001)-oriented LaAlO 3 and MgO substrates from stoichiometric LaFeAsO 1-x F x polycrystalline targets with fluorine concentrations up to x = 0.25 by PLD. Room temperature deposition and post annealing of the films yield nearly phase pure films with a pronounced c-axis texture and a strong biaxial in-plane orientation.Transport measurements show metallic resistance and onset of superconductivity at 11 K. µ 0 H c2 (T) was determined by resistive measurements and yield µ 0 H c2 values of 3 T at 3.6 K for µ 0 H || c and 6 T at 6.4 K for µ 0 H || ab.

Thick films of nearly equiatomic Co-Pt produced by electrodeposition into nanoporous membranes exhibit an isotropic magnetic phase with square hysteresis loops ͑M r / M s = 0.95͒ and coercivity of up to 1.3 T. The initial magnetization curve is characteristic of pinning-type magnets. The coercivity can be controlled by the choice of annealing temperature or alloy composition, which depends on the chemical composition of the plating bath, properties which can be exploited to produce fine-pitch pole patterns.

FePt films of different compositions have been electrodeposited on Cu coated Si substrates. After deposition films were annealed at temperatures up to 900 °C for 10 min. Phase formation, microstructure, and magnetic properties are analyzed. From these measurements, necessary conditions to obtain good hard magnetic properties are concluded. Remanence reaches a maximum value at 800 °C annealing temperature, while coercivity continuously increases for annealing temperatures up to 900 °C. A coercivity of 0.42 T has been achieved in this case.

Y2O3 nanoparticles prepared by an inert gas phase condensation process were used to introduce artificial pinning centres in YBa2Cu3O7−δ thin films. The areal density of the particles was varied between 120 and 4200 particles µm−2 without changing the mean particle diameter of approximately 9 nm. Y2O3 particles were deposited on TiO2 terminated SrTiO3 (100) single-crystal substrates with areal densities up to 1654 particles µm−2 and subsequently covered with YBa2Cu3O7−δ by off-axis pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The areal density of the room temperature deposited particles is not changed by the substrate heating during PLD although their height on the substrate decreases. An influence on Jc is demonstrated for particle densities above 1588 particles µm−2, indicating that the substrate decoration with Y2O3 nanoparticles from the gas phase affects the formation of artificial pinning centres in the YBa2Cu3O7−δ films and can be applied to further study of the effect of particle size and areal density on defect formation in YBa2Cu3O7−δ.