Nanocrystalline NiO thin films were deposited by dc reactive magnetron sputtering in a mixture of oxygen and argon and subsequently coated by Au on a NiO film surface. Very thin Au overlayers with a thickness of about 1 and 7 nm have been prepared by magnetron sputtering. Then, the surface modified NiO films have been analysed by TEM, EDX and SEM. NiO thin films showed a polycrystalline structure with the size of nanocrystals ranging from a few nanometers to 10 nm. Electrical responses of NiO-based structure towards hydrogen have been measured.