The epilayer growth of the MgGa2Se4 compounds was successfully achieved through the hot wall epitaxy method. The grown layer was accumulated along the < 116 > direction onto the GaAs(100) substrate. From the Hall effect measurement, the mobility was determined to be 264 cm(2)/Vs at 293 K. At a high temperature range (T > 150 K), it tended to decrease as a function of T-3/2 by increasing the temperature' and increase as a function of T-3/2 at the low-temperature range (T < 100 K). In the photocurrent (PC) measurement, we observed the A, B, and C peaks corresponding to 529.9 (2.3398 eV), 495.2 (2.5037 eV), and 477.6 nm (2.5960 eV) at 10 K, respectively. Three peaks of A, B, and C were caused by the band-to-band transitions from the valence band state of Gamma(4)(z), Gamma(5)(x), and Gamma(5)(y) to the conduction band state of Gamma(1)(s), respectively. By comparing the results of PC and absorption, the temperature dependence of the optical bandgap energy was well interpreted using Varshni's relation E-g(T)=2.3412-8.87x 10(-4) T-2/(T+251). (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.