Applications of lithium niobate in nonlinear optics at high light intensities are seriously hampered by optical damage. Recent investigations have shown that ${\mathrm{Hf}}^{4+}$ and ${\mathrm{Zr}}^{4+}$ ions have some advantages in suppressing optical damage of $\mathrm{Li}\mathrm{Nb}{\mathrm{O}}_3$ with respect to ${\mathrm{Mg}}^{2+}$ . Here we present Sn-doped $\mathrm{Li}\mathrm{Nb}{\mathrm{O}}_3$ (Sn:LN). Experimental results indicate that Sn:LN has similar optical damage resistance to Mg-doped $\mathrm{Li}\mathrm{Nb}{\mathrm{O}}_3$ , but the doping threshold of Sn is only $2.5\mathrm{mol.}\mathrm{\%}$ , where its distribution coefficient is 0.98. Hence ${\mathrm{Sn}}^{4+}$ ion turns out to be another good choice for increasing optical damage resistance of $\mathrm{Li}\mathrm{Nb}{\mathrm{O}}_3$ .