The growing interest in the development of silicon germanium carbon (SiGeC) based devices for micro- and optoelectronics provoked an increasing attention in alternative low thermal budget techniques capable to produce such alloys on large areas as well as on small selected regions. Excimer laser-induced chemical vapour deposition (LCVD) in parallel configuration is a "soft" alternative deposition technique that has already proved to be a feasible method for the production of various thin film semiconductors. This contribution will investigate the possibility to exploit the technique for producing the ternary SiGeC alloy and demonstrate that coatings with uniform composition, structure and thickness can be deposited at low substrate temperature. The samples have been extensively analysed by different techniques for identifying the most important experimental parameters determining the growth rate, and the homogeneity in stoichiometry and structure. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.