A variety of materials can be deposited as thin films by thermally evaporating the material under high vacuum conditions. Heating is typically done either resistively by passing an electric current through a filament or boat loaded with the material, or by focusing a high-current electron beam on the surface of the material. The deposited film thickness is typically monitored by a quartz crystal microbalance.

Three evaporators are used at Micronova: Two Edwards E306A coating systems (one resistive, one e-beam) and one self-built e-beam system. Metals directly available for deposition include e.g. aluminum, gold, silver, platinum, palladium, titanium, chromium, manganese, lead, copper, nickel and cobalt, as well as germanium and ITO (indium-tin-oxide).