A chemical vapor deposition apparatus has a reactor divided into a reaction space and a purging space by a susceptor for supporting a wafer and a loading chamber communicated through a gate with the reactor. Exhaust units are communicated with the reactor and loading chamber, respectively, so that the pressures in the reactor and loading chamber may be reduced. The susceptor has a plurality of recesses to aid placing or scooping the water. Through a transparent wall on the side of the purging space, the susceptor is heated by a lamp unit disposed outside the transparent wall. The loading chamber includes a wafer transport mechanism for charging a wafer into the reactor or discharging a processed wafer from the reactor. An unprocessed wafer is loaded to the loading chamber from a cassette and the processed wafer is unloaded to the cassette. One or a small number of wafers are processed at one time. A uniform film is deposited with a high reproducibility. The processing rate is high and the chemical vapor deposition apparatus is made compact in size.