The present paper deals with the different  geometrical configurations of the pulsed laser ablation deposition and reactive pulsed laser  ablation deposition techniques which have been reported in literature. The major part of the proposed deposition arrangements has been designed to reduce the worst shortcomings of these techniques, namely the presence  of fragments and droplets and the non-uniformity of the thickness of the deposited films. Advantages and drawbacks of present configurations compared to the conventional arrangement will be presented and discussed.