We have deposited terbium chloride-doped yttrium oxide luminescent thin films by pulsed laser ablation of a sintered target, using the fundamental frequency (1064 nm) of a Nd:YAG laser. Films were deposited on coming glass and silicon substrates in an oxygen atmosphere as well as under vacuum. The substrate temperatures during deposition were kept constant between 25 degrees C-250 degrees C. It was found that the oxygen pressure during deposition plays a determinant role on the luminescent and structural properties of the films. Independently of substrate temperature, all the films deposited at the highest oxygen pressure (3 x 10(-4) Torr) used in this work are polycrystalline and their photoluminescence spectra show emission lines characteristic of 4f --> 4f transitions of trivalent Tb ions. The photoluminescence emission intensity of these films slightly improves as the substrate temperature increases. On the other hand, the emission intensity of polycrystalline films deposited at the highest temperature (250 degrees C) strongly decreases as the oxygen pressure is decreased. X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and refractive index (RI) measurements reveal that these changes in the luminescence efficiency are associated with structural and compositional changes among the films, A preliminary optical emission analysis of the plasma plume of the ablated material is also reported.