A confined pulsed laser deposition method and apparatus that includes an ablative coating between a transparent confinement layer and a backing plane, and a laser beam directed through the confinement layer to ablate the coating at generally ambient temperature and pressure, and using laser induced pressure to synthesize metaphase from the ablative coating. For example, diamond phase carbon can be synthesized from a graphite coating. The laser beam can be directed through a focus lens to control the final spot size, or through a beam diffuser to make the intensity more uniform. An XYZ-stage can position a desired target area of the ablative coating to be irradiated by the laser beam. The laser beam can have an intensity of less than about 6 GW/cm2, or less than about 4 GW/cm2. The laser beam can have an excitation wavelength of about 568 nm.