The preparation of bismuth doped ZnSe films on silicon (100) by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) is reported. Bismuth was used as a p-type dopant source material for ZnSe. The stable p-type films with hole carrier concentration of about 10(16)-10(18) cm(-3) were obtained. By scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), it was found that the ambient pressure during film deposition has much to do with the morphology and crystallinity of the as-deposited products. The presence of Bi in the Bi-doped ZnSe films was confirmed by the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and the possibility of a Bi-Zn-2V(Zn) complex forming a shallow acceptor level was discussed. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.