Vanadium oxide thin films were prepared by sol-gel method, then subjected to Nd:YAG laser (CW, 1064 nm) radiation. The characteristics of the films were changed by varying the intensity of the laser radiation. The nanocrystalline films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). XRD revealed that above 102 W/cm(2) the original xerogel structure disappears and above 129 W/cm(2) the films become totally polycrystalline with an orthorhombic structure. From TEM observations, we can see that due to laser radiation, the originally fibrillar-like particles disappear and irregular shaped, layer structured V2O5 particles are created. From XPS spectra we can conclude that due to laser radiation the O/V ratio increased with higher intensities. (c) 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.