The joint effect of structural properties and electric field distribution on the laser damage threshold of HfO2 thin films is investigated in this work. Hafnium dioxide thin films of different optical thicknesses and with different structural properties have been realized employing two different deposition techniques: ion-assisted electron beam evaporation and dual-ion-beam sputtering technique. Laser damage thresholds of the samples have been measured at 308 nm (XeCl laser) by the photoacoustic beam deflection technique. It will be shown that samples presenting lower packing densities and lower peak values of the electric field intensity have higher damage threshold.