Silicon oxide and electrically conductive doped silicon materials are joined in a protective environment to yield a composite SiO.sub.x:Si material that exhibits the properties of SiO.sub.x, and yet is electrically conductive due to the presence of the Si. Such a composite material finds use as a target for DC and/or AC sputtering processes to produce silicon oxide thin films for touch-screen applications, barrier thin films in LCD displays and optical thin films used in a wide variety of applications.