High-quality Nd-doped gadolinium vanadate thin films oil silica glass substrates were fabricated successfully by using a pulsed laser deposition technique. The properties of the samples were characterized by using X-ray diffraction, Rutherford backscattering, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and prism-coupling measurements. The RBS shows no obvious evidence for interdiffusion between the film and the substrate. The ratio of Gd/V in the film is 0.995. X-ray diffraction results show that the as-deposited Nd:GdVO4 film is basically oriented polycrystalline, and strong (2 0 0) peak was revealed. The refractive indices of the films determined with dark-mode prism coupling measurements are slightly smaller than that of the bulk crystal. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.