In this paper, we review the detailed study of epitaxial growth of beta-FeSi2 films by reactive deposition epitaxy (RDE), multilayer technique and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The p- and n-type beta-FeSi2 was formed when it was grown under an Fe-rich and an Si-rich condition respectively. The maximum electron and hole mobilities of the beta-FeSi2 epitaxial films reached 6900 and 13000 cm(2)/V.s for the n-and p-type beta-FeSi2, respectively, at around 50 K. Room temperature (RT) 1.6 mum electroluminescence (EL) was realized by optimizing the growth conditions for p-Si/beta-FeSi2 particles/n-Si structures prepared by RDE for beta-FeSi2 and by MBE for Si. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.