Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has been commonly applied to prepare thin films. However, the application of CVD can be expanded to thick coatings such as thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) by accelerating deposition rates. In this paper, the recent development of high-speed deposition for yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) films by conventional thermal CVD and plasma-enhanced CVD (PE-CVD) has been briefly reviewed. A laser CVD (LCVD) process has been recently developed attaining an extremely high deposition rate of 660 mum/h. Plasma emerged during the laser CVD, and the relating plasma diagnosis is described. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.