Pulsed‐laser deposition of smooth high‐Tcsuperconducting films almost free from droplets and precipitates with the use of velocity filtration of plasma particles is reported. We have removed droplets from laser‐induced plasma by using a shutter technique; a reduction of the droplet density by a factor of 105has been achieved. We have applied the technique to the preparation of high quality YBa2Cu3O7−&dgr;films on (100)‐oriented SrTiO3, MgO, Y2O3‐stabilized ZrO2(YSZ) substrates and, furthermore, on (11¯02)‐oriented sapphire covered with (100) sublayers of Si and (100) YSZ buffer layers. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.