The invention provides a method of producing tranparent and conductive ultrathin films of metal carbide or metal nitride on a glass, ceramics or organic polymer substrate, which comprises the steps of exciting a surface of said substrate by irradiating said surface with a carbon or nitrogen ion beam; simultaneously vapor-depositing a transition metal onto said surface to form a carbide or nitride layer; and terminating the excitation and the vapor-deposition when the thickness of the metal carbide or nitride layer is in the range of 1 nm to 50 nm, and the light permeability of the metal carbide or nitride layer is in the range of 30% to 90%, wherein the conductivity of the metal carbide or nitride layer is in the range of 1 k.OMEGA./.quadrature. To 100 k.OMEGA./.quadrature..