of the invention the sterilization apparatus 21 of this embodiment has an evaporation container 14 underneath the housing container 2 for containing water there is an electric heater 15 in the evaporation container 14 and water is supplied to the container as shown by the arrow e this evaporation container 14 comprises a steam generation section 13 which generates steam 16 in an open state inside the housing container 2 this steam 16 is heated by a carbon lamp 17 that is located at the top of the evaporation container 14 and converted to superheated steam 9 the carbon lamp 17 heats the steam by radiation heating with light having a wavelength that is easily absorbed by the water steam to form superheated steam it is also possible to use another kind of heating lamp or a heater that is capable of radiant heating instead of the carbon lamp 17 by heating the steam in this way by radiant heat it is possible to efficiently generate superheated steam inside an open space as in the previously described embodiment the superheated steam is led to the processing section 11 where it sterilizes the object 3 to be sterilized fig3 is a schematic diagram of yet another embodiment of the invention the sterilization apparatus 31 of this embodiment uses an oscillator 6 similar that in the embodiment described in fig1 to generate minute water particles 8 and then heats these minute water particles by a carbon lamp 17 to cause evaporation and form superheated steam by using an oscillator 6 to convert water preferably.