Glass-ceramics are a technological solution to achieve efficient materials to operate at high temperatures, such as for enamel protective coatings applications. To overcome cracking of the glass when subjected to thermal cycles self-healing is shown to be a promising solution. The self-healing property is defined as the capacity of a material to recover its mechanical integrity and initial properties after destructive actions of external environment or under internal stresses> Coillot et al, (Adv Funct Mat 2010) have shown that self-healing processing can be obtained in two different ways: Autonomous or Non-autonomous. Based on non-autonomous processing, an innovative approach is to develop self-healing glassy thin films for protective coating applications such as in the field of aerospace. This study is based on the heterostructure deposition of glass-ceramics and active particle layers by Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD). The properties of the deposited films depend on many parameters during growth such as: number of pulse, frequency, energy density, atmosphere, temperature of the substrate, target-substrate distance, etc., We have shown that highly homogeneous layers of about 100-200nm are obtained under high vacuum, at room temperature, using a pulse energy of 225mJ, with a target-substrate distance varying from 3.5-5.5cm. The characterization of the multi-layer films has been studied using different techniques: Film thickness by ellipsometry; ToF-SIMS, AFM, Castaing microprobe; (ii) Homogeneity by Castaing microprobe, XPS; and (iii) structural characterization by ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. The efficiency of the self-healing effect is demonstrated by an in-situ experiment performed into an environmental scanning electron microscope (HT-ESEM).
