The growth temperature and post annealing-dependent optical and structural effect of RF magnetron sputtered ZnO thin films were examined. As the growth temperature increased, the lattice constant increased and approached the bulk value, suggesting a decrease in interfacial strain between the substrate and thin film. For the post annealed samples, the interfacial strain decreased further and was close to the bulk value regardless of the post annealing environments (in air and O-2). The optical properties of all ZnO thin films examined and revealed higher transparency (>90%). Furthermore, the optical band gap varied according to the growth temperature and post annealing environments due to a decrease in the interfacial strain effect. (C) 2013 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.