The heteroepitaxial BexZn1-xO(x=0.4) (BZO) thin films were deposited on sapphire (c-Al2O3) substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). BZO targets were synthesized using a traditional solid-reaction method. BZO films were deposited at a various substrate temperatures with a fixed P(O-2)=26 Pa, and the thickness of the films are estimated to be about 200 run. Based on the x-ray diffraction analysis, BZO thin films deposited at T-sub.=550-700 degrees C exhibit c-axis preferred growth. BZO films deposited at 600 and 650 degrees C exhibit sharp absorption edges around 400 nm measured at room temperature. The optical energy gap obtained from the transmittance spectra is about 3.43-3.64 eV, which demonstrates a possibility of the band gap engineering with a BeO-ZnO alloy using a PLD method with a single BZO target. It has been found that the crystallinity as well as the band gap of BZO films is strongly influenced by the deposition temperature. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.