Energy filtering magnetron sputtering is a kind of thin film preparation technique that has been improved on the basis of magnetron sputtering technology by our group. In this work, a series of TiO2 thin films were prepared by changing the mesh size of the filtering electrode with the energy filtering magnetron sputtering technique. The effect of mesh size on the phase structure, surface morphology and optical properties of the films was studied, and compared with the TiO2 thin films which were prepared by magnetron sputtering. The results show that the energy filtering magnetron sputtering technique is superior to the magnetron sputtering technique. The structure of the films was more uniform, the transmittance of the film increased from 86.5% to 91.4%, the refractive index increased from 1.61 to 1.68 at the wavelength of 500 nm, and the extinction coefficient decreased from 0.42 to 0.12 at the wavelength of 300 nm. There is a periodic change in the crystallization properties, surface roughness and optical properties of the films prepared by the energy filtering magnetron sputtering technique at different filtering electrode mesh size. The crystallization properties, the uniformity and the transmittance of the films prepared by the energy filtering magnetron sputtering technique are the best when the filtering electrode mesh number is 8. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]