surprisingly a period of as little as about 0 001 to about 1 millisecond is adequate to ensure that vapors of both ceramic materials do not coexist within the chamber 12 and therefore do not codeposit on the blade 42 as such a distinct compositional interface is formed between successive layers such that the thermal and adhesion characteristics of the coating system are not degraded by intermixing of the ceramic materials the preferred duration for which the electron beam 32 is directed at one of the ingots 24a and 24b in combination with the preferred interim period during which the electron beam 32 is traveling between ingots 24a and 24b is sufficient to both maintain a molten portion of the ingots 24a and 24b and deposit a discrete and homogeneous ceramic layer of less than about one micrometer with ceramic layers of about 0 2 micrometer and less being readily and reliably attainable at the deposition conditions indicated above a multilayer thermal barrier coating 60 composed of about 250 ceramic layers can be rapidly formed to yield a final thickness of about 50 micrometers or less for the barrier coating such a result is only advantageous if the resulting barrier coating 60 exhibits comparable thermal insulating properties and improved erosion and thermal cycle resistance as compared.