Ordered ZnO porous thin films were fabricated by cooperative assembly method using polystyrene sphere (PS) and ultrafine ZnO particles, in which ultrafine ZnO particles were directly assembled in the voids of PS while the template was being assembled by capillary forces. The influence of experimental parameters. such as evaporation temperature, ZnO concentration and the concentration ratio of PS/ZnO on morphology of the porous structure was mainly studied. The results showed that an ordered porous structure could be obtained by this method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra indicated the porous ZnO thin film was wurtzite structure. The transmissivity decreased with the decrease of wavelength, but still kept above 80% beyond the wavelength of 550 nm. Optical band gap of the ZnO thin film was 3.13 eV. (C) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.