We have developed a new laser heating system for thin film growth by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). A collimated beam from a high-power continuous-wave 808 nm semiconductor laser was directly introduced into a CVD growth chamber without an optical fiber. The light path of the heating laser inside the chamber was isolated mechanically from the growth area by bellows to protect the optics from film coating. Three types of heat absorbers, (10 × 10 × 2 mm(3)) consisting of SiC, Ni/NiO(x), or pyrolytic graphite covered with pyrolytic BN (PG/PBN), located at the backside of the substrate, were tested for heating performance. It was confirmed that the substrate temperature could reach higher than 1500 °C in vacuum when a PG/PBN absorber was used. A wide-range temperature response between 400 °C and 1000 °C was achieved at high heating and cooling rates. Although the thermal energy loss increased in a H(2) gas ambient due to the higher thermal conductivity, temperatures up to 1000 °C were achieved even in 200 Torr H(2). We have demonstrated the capabilities of this laser heating system by growing ZnO films by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The growth mode of ZnO films was changed from columnar to lateral growth by repeated temperature modulation in this laser heating system, and consequently atomically smooth epitaxial ZnO films were successfully grown on an a-plane sapphire substrate.