The recent interest in high-power UV lasers, as energy source to study nuclear fusion in confinement, has motivated the design of new high-index materials highly resistant to UV radiation. Such materials were to be deposited on optical surfaces and used as components for lenses, mirrors, protective layers, polarizers, etc., devices. Quarter-wavelength thickness (i.e. 352/4 nm) optical thin films of scandia, hafnia and zirconia xerogels, produced from sol-gel chemistry, have been prepared on fused silica substrates by dip coating. The initial scandia-based particles were lozenge-shaped platelets (i.e. 70 x 40 x 5 nm). These were highly stable in suspension in alcohols, and did not change their morphology after calcination at 773 K. Hafnia- and zirconia-based particles were spherical and less than 5 nm in dimension. Structures and surface topographies of coatings were characterized by atomic force microscopy and photothermal deflection. X-ray photoemission spectroscopy investigation allowed for the determination of the thin film chemical composition. Optical properties of coatings were deduced from UV-transmittance and ellipsometry measurements. Resistance to laser radiation at 351 nm in N-on-1 and R-on-1 modes are reported in detail. Each xerogel thin film was of high optical quality, exhibited a low surface roughness, and had excellent transparency at 351 nm. Scandia thin films were successfully purified by solvent extraction and thermal treatment. Annealing the scandia-based coatings at 773 K induced a densification of the xerogel network to cubic Sc2O3, exhibiting a refractive index of 1.85. Except for the dense scandia layer, other coatings exhibited laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) above the resistance of the ban fused silica substrate (LIDT > 11 J/cm(2)), suggesting that they could all be used as component for UV optical devices.