Highly oriented thin films of NaxWO3 (x = 0.25-0.7) are grown on sapphire (1 (1) over bar 02) and SrTiO3 (100) substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The colour of the films changes from blue through red to bronze yellow on varying the sodium content. The films are composed of particles less than 100 nm size. As in bulk NaxWO3, the resistivity is found to decrease on increasing the sodium content, and at around x = 0.25, a non-metal to metal transition is clearly observed. The conductivity measurement of Na0.25WO3 shows a crossover from temperature-activated Arrhenius behaviour at high temperatures to a variable range hopping mechanism near 70 K. The metallic samples show linear dependence of resistivity above 50 K. XPS studies confirm the presence of sodium in +1 and tungsten in +5 and +6 oxidation states. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.