Although thin films formed from beams of nanoparticles or clusters have been discussed since the early 1970s, the question of the usefulness of this method has remained open as few films of any significant thickness have been formed to date. Early attempts did not condense, could only condense a few "high vapor pressure" solids, or were so low rate as to make growth too slow to be of use. A new deposition system has been designed and built here at Florida International University along the

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... of those of Averback and Haberland, and they appear to have the most promise. The new system was specifically designed for high rate with a high throughput intermediate pressure pump and 2 kW capable dc sputter source. Optically transparent films have been deposited from a copper source but are not yet fully understood. Films were deposited onto single crystal silicon substrates and show a small beam divergence of less than 1°total. The beam is highly nonuniform with maximum intensity on axis, which drops rapidly to zero within less than 10 mm off axis. Deposits have been made using a 1 Torr argonϩhelium sputtering and condensation atmosphere followed by nozzle aperture extraction. Films are affected by the amount of He and by cooling of the sputter chamber walls.