Al doped ZnO thin films are prepared by pulsed laser deposition on quartz substrate at substrate temperature 873K under a background oxygen pressure of 0.02mbar. The films are systematically analyzed using X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, micro-Raman spectroscopy, UV–vis spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy, z-scan and temperature-dependent electrical resistivity measurements in the temperature range 70–300K. XRD patterns show that all the films are well crystallized with hexagonal wurtzite structure with preferred orientation along (002) plane. Particle size calculations based on XRD analysis show that all the films are nanocrystalline in nature with the size of the quantum dots ranging from 8 to 17nm. The presence of high frequency E 2 mode and longitudinal optical A 1 (LO) modes in the Raman spectra suggest a hexagonal wurtzite structure for the films. AFM analysis reveals the agglomerated growth mode in the doped films and it reduces the nucleation barrier of ZnO by Al doping. The 1% Al doped ZnO film presents high transmittance of ∼75% in the visible and near infrared region and low dc electrical resistivity of 5.94×10 −6 Ωm. PL spectra show emissions corresponding to the near band edge (NBE) ultra violet emission and deep level emission in the visible region. Nonlinear optical measurements using the z-scan technique shows optical limiting behavior for the 5% Al doped ZnO film.