We report on the growth and microstructural analysis of molecularly ordered thin film layers of aluminum tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline) (Alq(3)) by hot-wall deposition onto amorphous glass substrates. Using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), ordering on a scale of 100 nm was observed. Raman measurements of these films indicated that they corresponded to the alpha-polymorph of crystalline Alq3, and photoluminescence measurements exhibited a single broad peak centered at 500 nm, which is also consistent with the alpha-form. As a comparison, we deposited films of Alq3 using organic molecular beam deposition (OMBD), which exhibited no molecular ordering from the TEM studies. For these films, strong point-to-point variations in the Raman spectrum, and the existence of a double peak in the photoluminescence at 500 and 522 run were observed. These measurements indicate that the OMBD films possess a mixture of both U and amorphous phases. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.