The physical processes of pulsed laser deposition (PLD) change strongly from the initial light absorption in a target to the final deposition and growth of a film. One of the primary advantages of PLD is the stoichiometric transfer of material from target to a film on a substrate. Even for a stoichiometric flow of material from a multicomponent target, the simultaneous arrival of the target atoms is not sufficient to ensure a stoichiometric film growth. The laser fluence has to be sufficiently high to induce ablation rather than pure evaporation from target, but a high fluence may lead to preferential (self) sputtering and possibly implantation of the light atoms in the film. A background gas of a sufficiently high pressure may reduce sputtering of the film, but may lead the preferential diffusion of the light component to the substrate. The importance of these processes during the entire PLD process will be discussed. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.