To apply the activated reactive evaporation (ARE) process to coatings for telecommunication components, the deposition rate must be less than 0.1 μm/min. To accomplish this slow rate, an electron emitting electrode was attached to the ARE apparatus. Electrons emitted from the electrode ’’enhanced’’ the ARE process. In the enhanced ARE process, the generation of plasma and evaporation of metal can be controlled independently. Therefore, the deposition rate can be controlled widely, and resistance heating and laser heating can be used for evaporation instead of electron beam heating. The enhanced ARE process was tested by synthesizing titanium nitride. Since N2 gas pressure can be varied widely in the enhanced ARE process, the chemical composition of the Ti–N films is more easily controlled than with the ARE process. Ti2N film synthesized by the enhanced ARE process showed a maximum hardness of Hv:2824 kg/mm2.