ZnO stands a good chance of being a candidate material for solar-blind UV detection because of its direct band-gap of 3.37eV and high photoresponse. In this work, we present the UV photodetection properties of ZnO single crystal microtubes synthesized using a microwave-heating growth method. The ZnO microtubes exhibited relatively fast UV photoresponse with a cut-off wavelength similar to 370 nm, indicating their potential application as UV detectors with high efficiency and low cost. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.