AbstractA systematic study of the composition of metal films thermally deposited by laser heating (cw 514 nm) of the group VI hexacarbonyls is described. The films are found to contain significantly lower levels of carbon and oxygen than photochemically deposited films, and are spatially inhomogeneous. Estimates of temperature to determine the extent of laser heating permit the kinetics of this process to be compared to ∞ desorption from single crystal surfaces.