High quality Y‐Ba‐Cu‐O thin films were produced on single‐crystal Mgo and SrTiO3by metal‐organic chemical vapor deposition (MOVD) using metal chelates of &bgr;‐diketonate ligands. The films were grown in a cold‐wall CVD reactor at a reactor pressure of 10 torr and substrate temperature in the range 700–900 °C. Characterization studies were performed using Rutherford Backscattering (RBS), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy‐dispersive x‐ray spectroscopy (EDXS). The studies showed that the films were uniform, continuous, adherent and highly pure. Four point resistivity measurements showed that films had a sharp superconducting transition at 92 K and exhibited critical current densities of ∼5–106A/Cm2(B=0, T=77K).