Effects of illumination wavelength upon the growth rate and photoluminescence properties of undoped and aluminum (Al)-doped ZnTe layers have been investigated under a Te-rich growth condition by xenon-lamp-assisted metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy. Even illumination with wavelengths longer than 600 nm, which hardly enhance the growth rate, deteriorates the quality of undoped and Al-doped ZnTe epilayers. Illumination with wavelengths, which enhance the growth rate, i.e., illumination by photons having energies higher than the band gap of ZnTe, ensures the appearance of strong free exciton emission for undoped layers. This also brings about a strong donor-acceptor pair luminescence for Al-doped layers.