TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Method: In the method, the thin film or coating is deposited under an atmosphere of the activated gas at the given pressure that provides compensation for the gas shortfall in the condensate composition. The active gas partial pressure in the chamber for material deposition onto the substrate is automatically maintained at the 1.10-1-5.10-2 Pa by automatic adjustment of the pump-down rate by bleed-in of the reactive gas into the chamber, which is continuously pumped and is directly fed into the material evaporation/deposition zone and into the glow discharge area. The vacuum chamber with the gas discharge gun are pumped down by means of vacuum pumps to 10-1-10-3 Pa. The specific power rate on the evaporation surface is adjusted by means of a scanning electron beam controlled by a scanning coil that directs the electron beam across the surface of the starting material (compacted blank) according to a given program that is effected by means of an electromagnetic control device, where the power of the scanning beam is 500 W-2 kW and the scanning frequency of the electron scanning beam is approximately 0.3-300 Hz. The power of the electron beam is automatically controlled by changing pressure in the gun, where the electron beam diameter is 5-10 mm. The temperature of the substrate onto which the physical deposition of the vapor stream of the materials is being carried out is maintained within a given range by means of a radiation heater as a function of the reactive gas pressure in the deposition zone and of the partial pressure of the reactive gas in the working chamber and the localization of the substrate heating is effected by using screens and substrate holders. The compacted blanks of the starting materials are placed inside a cooled ceramic crucible or of a cooled metallic crucible. The substrates onto which the physical deposition of the vapor stream of materials is being carried out are made of ceramics or of metal and the thickness of the metal from which the substrate is 2-200 mu m. The substrate onto which the vapor stream of materials is being deposited is held at an adjustable electrical potential relative to the properties of the materials which are deposited. The coating deposition rate is greater than or equal to 10 mu m/s and is a function of the material that is evaporated, where prior to evaporation of the material is vaporized, the substrate surface is subjected to ion cleaning. The multi-layer coating is applied onto the substrate, where the first layer of multi-layer coating being a layer of an adhesive material or graphite. Preferred Components: The active gas is comprised of oxygen, compositions of sulfide or nitrogen. The initial materials may be comprised of metal oxides, metal sulfides, metals, carbon, carbon compositions, silicon or silicon composition and the materials is deposited onto the substrate may be comprised of active electrode materials of power sources such as MoO3, FeS2, LiCoO2, LiMn2O4, MnO2, carbon and carbon compositions, solid inorganic electrolytes including those of the Lipon (RTM: surfactant) type, or vitreous substances based on a lithium-containing mixture of oxides, materials for solar cell such as silicon or silicon composition. EXAMPLE - Depositing coatings from binary MnO2 and MoO3 compounds was carried out on a modernized experimental installation URMZ as follows: powders of MnO2 and MoO3 compounds were compacted to blanks of appropriate dimensions. The blanks were placed in a cooled copper crucible. Evaporation was effected using a 1.5-2 kW electron beam that was scanned the surface of the blanks. Oxygen was used as a working (reactive) gas. The substrate temperature was regulated automatically as required for the material deposited, and as a function of the working gas pressure, and was thus maintained at 200-230 degrees C. The coatings deposition rate, depending on the beam power, rate reached several tens of urn/second. The partial pressure of oxygen in the chamber was maintained automatically at the level of 0.1 Pa. The coatings were deposited onto the 0.2 mm thick stainless steel substrates.