N-doped ZnO thin films have been grown on sapphire substrates by dielectric barrier discharged pulsed laser deposition (DBD-PLD). Low temperature photoluminescence spectra of N-doped ZnO film verified the p-type doping status to find the acceptor-bound exciton peaks with the high resolution detection. At low temperature growth, the major defects in the N-doped ZnO film were the oxygen interstitials that can combine with N, so that the N played the role as an acceptor. On the other hand, the major defects in the samples processed at high temperature were oxygen vacancies with which N doesn't play the role as an acceptor. The acceptor binding energy of N acceptor was estimated to be about 105 meV. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.