High (2 eV) and low kinetic energy supersonic jets of disilane as well as ultrahigh vacuum chemical vapor deposition have been employed to grow epitaxial silicon thin films on Si(100) wafers at temperatures ranging from 500 to 650 °C. The growth properties and film uniformity are compared in order to characterize the high energy technique. High translational energy disilane supersonic jets increase the efficiency of deposition by increasing the disilane reaction probability. The growth profiles from the high energy jet are sharply peaked due to a focusing of the precursor along the jet centerline. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.