A novel gas-jet electron beam plasma chemical vapor deposition method for high-rate deposition of silicon films is presented. The method is based on the activation of initial gas molecules by electron beam and fast convective transfer of the radicals to a substrate by means of a supersonic free jet. We report on the results of applying the method for growth of amorphous, microcrystalline, homoepitaxial silicon films and transparent conducting oxides (ZnO:Al). Our method demonstrates the high deposition rates (up to 5 nm/s) of microcrystalline Si films at low temperatures on large area substrates (area up to 15x15 cm(2)). (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.