In this study, highly transparent conductive Ga-doped Zn0.9Mg0.1O (ZMO:Ga) thin films have been deposited on glass substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. The effects of substrate temperature and post-deposition vacuum annealing on structural, electrical and optical properties of ZMO:Ga thin films were investigated. The properties of the films have been characterized through Hall effect, double beam spectrophotometer and X-ray diffraction. The experimental results show that the electrical resistivity of film deposited at 200 degrees C is 8.12 x 10(-4) Omega cm, and can be further decreased to 4.74 x 10(-4) Omega cm with post-deposition annealing at 400 degrees C for 2 h under 3 x 10(-3) Pa. In the meantime, its band gap energy can be increased to 3.90 eV from 3.83 eV. The annealing process leads to improvement of (0 0 2) orientation, wider band gap, increased carrier concentration and blue-shift of absorption edge in the transmission spectra of ZMO:Ga thin films. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.