Aluminium oxide being environmentally stable and having high transmittance is an interesting material for optoelectronics devices. Aluminium oxide thin films have been successfully deposited by hot water oxidation of vacuum evaporated aluminium thin films. The surface morphology, surface roughness, optical transmission, band gap, refractive index and intrinsic stress of Al2O3 thin films were studied. The cost effective vapor chopping technique was used. It was observed that, optical transmittance of vapor chopped Al2O3 thin film showed higher transmittance than the nonchopped film. The optical band gap of vapor chopped thin film was higher than the nonchopped Al2O3, whereas surface roughness and refractive index were lower due to vapor chopping. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.