The rate of photolytic laser chem. vapor deposition (LCVD) of Pt from its bishexafluoroacetylacetonate precursor is measured as a function of the light intensity, the wavelength, the precursor pressure, and the laser beam diam. at the surface. The wavelength dependence of the deposition rate indicates that the photodissocn. yield does not depend only on the absorption coeff. of the precursor, but may differ from one absorption band to another. This is indicative of the different photophys. processes assocd. with different absorption bands. Changing the precursor pressure strongly influences gas-phase LCVD, and hardly influences adlayer LCVD at the applied conditions. Effective quantum yields for the LCVD process are calcd. using simple models for photolysis in the gas phase and in the adlayer. The magnitude of these quantum yields, as well as their dependence on light intensity and precursor vapor pressure is compared with expt. A simple model is used to est. the height above the surface which contributes effectively to gas-phase LCVD.