Europium-doped Β- Ga2 O3 thin films were grown on double-side polished c -axis (0001) sapphire substrates by pulsed laser deposition at 850 °C. Transmission measurements of the films revealed a sharp band edge with a band gap at 5.0 eV. The films exhibited intense red emission at 611 nm (2.03 eV) due to the transitions from D05 to F27 levels in europium, with intensities that increased with the concentration of europium. Time-resolved photoluminescence measurements revealed a temperature-insensitive lifetime of 1.4 ms, which is much longer than the lifetimes of europium luminescence observed in GaN hosts. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.