A comparison of two spray pyrolysis techniques, Electrostatic Spray Deposition (ESD) and Pressurized Spray Deposition (PSD), is presented in this paper. Both techniques have been applied for the deposition of thin yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) films. Thin films with various morphologies have been deposited using the ESD technique. For both techniques, the main parameter that determines the film morphology was the substrate temperature. Using ESD, the surface morphology was strongly influenced by the composition of the precursor solution and deposition time. When the PSD technique was used for film deposition, the influence of these parameters on film morphology was not pronounced. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.