A novel deposition methodology is employed for exploratory development of a class of high-performance transparent thin-film transistor (TTFT) channel materials involving oxides composed of heavy-metal cations with (n-1)d(10)ns(0) (n >= 4) electronic configurations. The method involves sequential radio-frequency sputter deposition of thin, single cation oxide layers and subsequent post-deposition annealing in order to obtain a multi-component oxide thin film. The viability of this rapid materials development methodology is demonstrated through the realization of high-performance TTFTs with channel layers composed of zinc oxide/tin oxide, and tin oxide/indium oxide. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.