  We grew SrTiO3 on SrTiO3 [001] by pulsed laser deposition, while observing
x-ray diffraction at the (0 0 .5) position. The drop dI in the x-ray intensity
following a laser pulse contains information about plume-surface interactions.
Kinematic theory predicts dI/I = -4sigma(1-sigma), so that dI/I depends only on
the amount of deposited material sigma. In contrast, we observed experimentally
that |dI/I| < 4sigma(1-sigma), and that dI/I depends on the phase of x-ray
growth oscillations. The combined results suggest a fast smoothing mechanism
that depends on surface step-edge density.
