Conducting and transparent thin films of tin oxide were prepared by the laser evaporation of an undoped powder‐pressed polycrystalline tin oxide target onto unheated substrates. After characterizing these films, the results reveal that the films are highly oriented and with a grain size ∼0.2 &mgr;m. The nearly stoichiometric deposition of tin oxide films with deposition rates exceeding 24 A˚ per pulse was obtained by this method. The lowest resistivity obtained is 3.0×10−3&OHgr; cm. The visible transmittance (between 4000 and 7000 A˚) is above 75%.