Ion beam sputter‐deposition is one of the techniques used for synthesizing high Tcsuperconducting films in laboratory experiments. However, the scaling‐up of this method for technological applications, such as in microelectronics, will require a better understanding of basic phenomena occurring during the deposition process. First results are presented here from experimental and computer simulation studies on ion scattering and sputtering processes. It is demonstrated that scattering of neutralized ions from the targets can result in undesirable erosion of, and inert gas incorporation in, the growing films, depending on the ion/target atom mass ratio and ion beam angle of incidence/target/substrate geometry. The studies indicate that sputtering by Kr+or Xe+ions is preferable to the most commonly used Ar+ions, since the undesirable phenomena mentioned above are minimized for the first two ions. These results are used to determine optimum sputter deposition geometry and ions beam parameters for growing high Tcfilms.