A plasma enhanced beam deposition technique for thin films is discussed. It is shown that thin films of tailored stoichiometry or amorphous layers can be easily deposited in the temperature range (30–250 °C). The technique uses a combination of active atomic or molecular beams generated by charged particles or photons. Films of SiO2, Al2O3, ZrO3, silicon oxynitride, NbN, etc., have been deposited on metals, semiconductors, and insulators. The interfaces between the deposited films and the substrates are extremely sharp and no native growth of oxides of nitrides occurred on the substrate surfaces during film deposition. Film thickness and composition can be precisely controlled by optical monitoring techniques. For instance, the physical properties of the deposited SiO2 at 100 °C is nearly identical to that of thermal oxides grown on Si at 1100 °C. The deposited SiO2 has an electrostatic breakdown field strength of about 5×106 V/cm, and 1 MHz C–V curves show a hysteresis of 50 mV at a sweep rate of 100 mV/s. The fixed charge density is 3.5×1011 cm−2. The advantages of this process for depositing Al2O3 on InP, GaAs, and Si are discussed. Utilizing the low temperature nature of the technique, patterns of μ‐width SiO2 features have been made using photoresist masked substrates and the lift‐off technique. Finally, it is proposed that epitaxial growth of compound films should also be possible under UHV conditions.