SnO2 thin films have been obtained on plastic sheets and, silicon wafers from an aqueous solution by the photochemical deposition method using UV light of an ultra-high pressure mercury arc-lamp. The solution contains 10 mM of SnSO4, and its pH is adjusted between -0.1 and -0.025 with addition of H2SO4. The films are analyzed by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis. The results show that they consist of nano-size particles with almost stoichiometric composition. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.