The optical and electrical properties of indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films deposited using a pulsed laser deposition at room temperature can be substantially enhanced by adopting a two-step process. X-ray diffraction patterns and atomic force microscopy images were used to observe the structural properties of the films. High quality ITO films grown by two-step process could be obtained with the resistivity of 3.02 x 10(-4) mu cm, the carrier mobility of 32.07 cm(2)/Vs, and the transparency above 90% in visible region mainly due to the enhancement of the film crystallinity and the increase of grain size. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.