Characteristics of the ion beam created when the CO2‐laser radiation heats the anode of a vacuum diode are investigated. The diode with a carbon plate anode and a high‐transparency grid cathode has been used. The gap and the applied voltage were equal to 5 cm and 40 kV accordingly. Laser power density on the anode was varied in the range of 107–108W/cm2by changing the focal spot size from 1 to 7 mm. It is shown that the specific regime without breakdown of the vacuum diode can be obtained by adjusting the laser power density and the focal‐spot size on the anode. The ion beam with a total current of 100 mA and a pulse duration of 30 mks was obtained in such a regime. The number of carbon clusters C+2and C+3constitutes about 60% of the total number of ions in the beam, which is equal to 1013per pulse. The maximum current density of the carbon cluster beam is equal to 3 mA/cm2, and the emittance of this beam is less than 10 cm mrad. On the basis of results obtained, a new method is proposed for production of intensive cluster and molecular ion beams with different elements and chemical compounds on the target.