Barium tungstate (BaWO 4)films with different Dy 3+ doping concentrations namely 0,1,3and 5wt% are deposited on cleaned quartz substrate by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering technique and the prepared films are annealed at a temperature of 700 °C. The structural, morphological and optical properties of the annealed films are studied using techniques such as Xray diffraction (XRD), micro-Raman spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. XRD analysis shows that all the films are well-crystallized in nature with monoclinic barium tungstate phase. The presence of characteristic modes of tungstate group in the Raman spectra supports the formation of barium tungstatephase in the films.Scanning electron microscopic (SEM) images of the films present uniform dense distribution of well-defined grains with different sizes. All the doped films present a broad emission in the 390-500 nm region and its intensity increases up to 3 wt% and there after decreases due to usual concentration quenching.