We investigated the optical properties of periodically polarity-inverted (PPI) ZnO structures formed on (0001) Al2O3 substrates by evaluating the cathodoluminescence (CL) as a function of the acceleration voltage (V-acc). At surface regions with a low V-acc, the emission from the interface region was dominant but the dominant emission source changed to the Zn-polar regions as V-acc was increased, which can be explained by the different exciton diffusion lengths. The dependence of the emission properties on V-acc showed a slight red shift as V-acc increased and a larger red shift was observed in the Zn-polar regions. Moreover, the interface regions showed the highest intensity compared to other regions, which can be explained by the results of the geometrical analysis conducted using a finite-differential time domain simulation. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.