Laser assisted deposition (LADA) has been used to deposit epitaxial Hg0.7Cd0.3Te layers on CdTe substrates and CdTe layers on GaAs substrates. As‐ grown Hg0.7Cd0.3Te layers are n‐type and can be converted to p‐type by annealing. Implanted n+/p photodiodes have been demonstrated. Heteroepitaxial (111)CdTe/(100) GaAs layers were characterized by x‐ray diffraction, UV reflectance, photoluminescence, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Results indicate good crystallinity with 105 cm−2 dislocation densities beyond a few microns from the CdTe/GaAs interface.