Following the demand of replacing conventional dielectrics in the semiconductor industry, a material screening for new high- k dielectrics is necessary. In this article, the molecular beam deposition is presented as a versatile and valuable tool for growing dielectric films. ZrO₂ was chosen as an example to demonstrate the capability of molecular beam deposition to grow thin high- k dielectrics in a metal-insulator-metal stack. A k -value from 21 to 26 could be achieved for as-grown films. This could be improved even further up to 30 by performing postdepositions anneals that result in a capacitance equivalent thickness of 1.5 nm at a leakage current density of 1.5× 10^-7 A/ cm². In addition, the crystallization behavior of ZrO₂ was investigated.