Eu doped Y2O3 (Y2O3:Eu) shows strong luminescence and can be used for the study of electromagnetic radiation from tailored microstructures. These microstructures can be machined from a thin film by focused ion beam. For this purpose, a dense film and a fine grain structure are desirable to avoid shape instabilities in the FIB machining resulting from different sputter yields for varying crystallographic orientations. Films of Y2O3:Eu with an approximate thickness if 1 µm were deposited from a loosely compressed 2 inch target made of Y2O3:Eu powder (grain size in the µm region), as compact sputter targets were not available. It was found that above a power threshold of approx. 80 W a contamination layer formed on the target surface. However, the formation of this layer had no effect on the crystalline quality of the film, and even was found to significantly increase the deposition rate.