Laser deposition of barium ferrite films with varying substrate temperature during film growth has been studied. It is found that both perpendicular and in-plane coercivities increase with peak substrate temperature and reach 5.2 kOe. The magnetization hysteresis loops are similar for both magnetic fields applied parallel and perpendicular to the substrate surface, indicating that the films exhibit almost isotropic properties. The magnetic properties, grain shape and crystalline orientation of films deposited with varying substrate temperature are close to films deposited with post annealing and differ from films deposited with in situ heating. The total time for preparing films with varying substrate temperature is much shorter than that with post annealing or in situ heating. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.