Abstract. Zirconium oxide (ZrO 2 ) thin films were grown by thermal oxidation of metallic zirconium films deposited by sputtering of zirconium target by DC magnetron sputtering technique. The zirconium films were thermally oxidized in oxygen atmosphere at temperatures in the range 300-500 o C. The as-deposited and oxidized films were characterized for chemical composition by energy dispersive X-ray analysis, structure by X-ray diffraction, chemical binding configuration with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and optical absorption using UV-Vis NIR spectrophotometer. Metallic zirconium film was polycrystalline in nature with hexagonal structured Zr. The films oxidized at 300