Abstract Most conventional evaporation sources consist of resistance heated metals supporting the evaporant. They have the disadvantage of reacting with the evaporant. This results in the deposition of contaminated films. Evaporation with an electron beam eliminates this problem. However, electron beam evaporation can not be accomplished easily at higher pressures. An investigation was conducted to determine the feasibility of using a CO₂ laser to produce thin films of SiO₂. A helium-neon...