Magnetic properties of pulsed laser deposited (PLD) FePt thin films are investigated at three different laser energy fluences of 51, 136 and 182 J/cm(2). Deposition at lower laser energy fluence (51 J/cm(2)) yields softer-out-of-plane coercivity (<= 0.4 kG), whereas deposition at higher laser energy fluence (136 and 182 J/cm(2)) results in harder out-of-plane coercivity (>= 5.0 kG). The improved coercivity is found to be attributed to the formation of vacancy defects in thin films, which is indicated by stress change from tensile to compressive form with increasing laser energy fluence. Maximum out-of-plane saturated magnetization of 615 emu/cm(3) and remanent squareness ratio of 0.88 are achieved for 16 nm thick FePt thin films deposited at moderate laser energy fluence of 136 J/cm(2), making them suitable for high density perpendicular data storage applications. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.