Polymer assisted deposition (PAD) is a chemical solution route to high quality thin films of metal oxides. This technique employs metal ions coordinated to polymers as the film precursor. The use of polymer bound metals has several advantages. The polymer controls the viscosity and binds metal ions, resulting in a homogeneous distribution of metal precursors in the solution and the formation of uniform metal oxide films. The nature of the metal oxide deposition is dominated by bottom-up growth, leading to ready formation of crack-free epitaxial metal oxides and the ability to coat nanofeatured substrates in a conformal fashion.