FIG. 1: (color online.) Pictures of selected steps of the target preparation: (a) pressed pill, (b) induction melting and (c) target after last arc discharge melting step. nm and the laser repetition rate f was chosen between 5 and 20 Hz. Prior to thin film deposition, one–side polished, single–crystalline and [110]–edge–oriented MgO substrates with a size of 10 x 10 x 1 mm (from Crystec ) were ultrasonically cleaned in acetone for 5 min, then transferred to the chamber and heated in situ under vacuum at about 1050 ℃ for 5 minutes. The substrates were then cooled down to the deposition temperature according to sample and held for 15 minutes in order to stabilize the surface temperature. The target was cleaned before the deposition using a number of additional laser pulses while the substrate was protected by a shutter. Furthermore, the substrate holder was axially slowly rotated during the deposition to improve the homogeneity of the growing films. Temperatures were measured using an Infrawin infrared pyrometer before and directly after deposition of the film. The films were analyzed with x–ray diffractometry ( Philips X’Pert system) in Bragg-Brentano geometry using Co K$_{α}$ (standard Bragg-Brentano) or Cu K$_{α}$ (texture measurements) radiation. Superconductive properties of the films (patterning was not applied) were determined using resistive measurements in a Quantum Design PPMS . A series ofLuNi$_{2}$B$_{2}$C thin films has been grown on MgO(110) single crystal substrates at different deposition temperatures as described. The laser repetition rate was fixed at 20 Hz for this series. The phase formation, analyzed using standard Bragg Brentano x–ray diffrac- tion, is shown in Fig. 2 in dependence of the post–deposition temperature. We draw three main conclusions from the data: (1) The patterns show that the borocarbide 1221–phase is formed in a pronounced c–axis oriented growth for the whole range of the investigated deposition temperatures. The c–axis lattice parameters obtained from the patterns fit well with the data obtained by powder diffractometry. For higher temperatures, the amount of 5 III. PHASE FORMATION