We fabricated aluminum fluoride (AlF(3)) thin films by pulsed DC magnetron sputtering with various CF(4) flow rates and sputtering powers. Our method is distinct from the conventional deposition process in that we used inexpensive Al (99.99% purity) as the target instead of an expensive fluoride compound. The optical properties and microstructure of the thin films were examined. The optical quality of AlF(3) thin films deposited at a 20 W sputtering power and injected 110 SCCM (SCCM denotes cubic centimeters per minute at standard temperature and pressure) CF(4) flow at room temperature showed improvement with an extinction coefficient of less than 7 x 10(-4) at 193 nm. The deposition of AlF(3) thin films at different substrate temperatures and annealed by UV light was also investigated.