assembly 306 and an actuator 308 the components of scanning assembly 300 may be enclosed in a single housing which is mountable on to a process chamber 320 in a manner similar to the embodiments described above in fig2 a laser focusing assembly 306 includes a first focusing lens 310 a second focusing lens 312 and mirror 314 focusing assembly operates in a well known conventional manner to focus the laser energy 301 from laser 302 onto wafer 304 the laser energy 301 from laser 302 can have a wavelength of less than 1 u03bcm actuator 308 provides a conventional means for making scanner assembly 300 operable to scan wafer 304 actuator 308 may be configured to move laser 302 and focusing assembly 306 to provide a back and forth scanning motion across wafer 304 as indicated in fig4 by arrow 316 alternatively only mirror 314 may be moved to cause the laser scanning of wafer 304 in yet another alternative embodiment wafer 304 may be made to move such that a stationary beam 301 can be made to scan the wafer surface actuator 308 may include but is not limited to conventional drivers and motion translation mechanisms such as linear motors stepper motors hydraulic drives and the like and gears pulleys chains and the like in one embodiment scanner assembly 300 is positioned above an optical window 318 which is provided along the scanning length of process chamber 320 to allow the laser energy to enter process chamber 320 and impinge on wafer 304 window 318 may be made of any material that allows for the transmission of laser energy 301 preferably transparent quartz window 318 may have a thickness of between about 1 and about 5 mm and a diameter that is at least as great or greater.