Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films were deposited on the gallium nitride (GaN) and sapphire (Al2O3) substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) without using any metal catalyst. The experiment was carried out at three different laser wavelengths of Nd: YAG laser (lambda = 1064 nm, lambda = 532 nm) and KrF excimer laser (lambda = 248 nm). The ZnO films grown at lambda = 532 nm revealed the presence of ZnO nanorods and microrods. The diameter of the rods varies from 250 nm to 2 mm and the length varies between 9 and 22 mm. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of the rods revealed the absence of frozen balls at the tip of the ZnO rods. The growth of ZnO rods has been explained by vapor-solid (V-S) mechanism. The origin of growth of ZnO rods has been attributed to the ejection of micrometric and sub-micrometric sized particulates from the ZnO target. The ZnO films grown at lambda = 1064 nm and lambda = 248 nm do not show the rod like morphology. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) has not shown the presence of any impurity except zinc and oxygen. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.