A study has been made of thin electron‐beam‐evaporated yttrium oxide films. The oxide structure was found to be polycrystalline, with grain sizes of the order of 100 Å, by electron microscopy. dc conduction measurements were made and a Frenkel‐type of conduction mechanism was proposed. Step response and bridge dielectric loss measurements were compared. Internal photoemission was used to obtain metal/oxide barrier heights of 3.14 and 3.72 eV in an Al‐Y2O3‐Al structure.