Thin film samples of CeCl3, CeBr3, and combinatorial compositions along the CeCl3-CeBr3 join were produced using thermal evaporation, which is being evaluated as a method for rapid screening of scintillator materials. The combinatorial thin films were shown to be compositionally reproducible from run-to-run within reasonable limitations. Analytical results suggest a continuous variation in the combinatorial samples in terms of their compositions, crystal structures, and luminescence characteristics. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.