Laser damage resistance studies have been performed at 308 nm (XeCl laser) by the photoacoustic beam deflection technique, on hafnium dioxide (HfO2) thin films deposited on fused silica substrates either by the ion-assisted electron beam evaporation technique or by a dual-ion-beam sputtering technique. Films of quite high laser damage threshold (7 J/cm(2)) have been deposited by the electron beam evaporation technique. The optical and structural film characteristics and their relation to damage threshold have also been investigated.