Transparent conductive Ga-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Ga) films with highly (0 0 2)-preferred orientation were deposited on glass substrates by DC reactive magnetron sputtering. Variation of structural, electrical, and optical properties with Ga content was investigated. The peak position of the (0 0 2) plane is linearly shifted to the lower 2 theta value with the increase of Ga content. The lowest resistivity of the ZnO:Ga films is 3.51 X 10(-4) Omega cm and the average transmittance of the films is over 90% in the visible range. The optical band gap of the films is in the range of 3.58-3.74 eV. The optimum growth condition was obtained by using the Zn-Ga alloy target of 3.0 at% Ga content. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.