ZnTe epilayers were grown on (1 0 0) GaAs substrates by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy using dimethylzinc and diethyl telluride as the source materials. Surface morphology dependence of the ZnTe epilayers on substrate temperature and thickness was investigated. The surface toughness decreases with increasing substrate temperature, and increases linearly with the thickness, which is ascribed to the three-dimensional growth mechanism. A sharply excitonic emission at 2.370 eV associated with shallow acceptors is observed and neither a donor-acceptor pair recombination nor a deep-level luminescence signal is detected in the photoluminescence spectra of the epilayers, indicating ZnTe epilayers grown (1 0 0) GaAs substrates are of good quality in terms of crystallinity. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.