Using an especially designed low-pressure metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (LP-MOCVD) system, the SiC buffer layer and ZnO epitaxial films were sequentially deposited on Si (111) substrate to carry out the heteroepitaxy of ZnO film on Si substrate. SiC was chosen as a buffer layer to reduce the lattice mismatch between ZnO and Si. According to the measurement results, it was found that the ZnO/SiC/Si (111) films have much stronger ultraviolet emission and better crystal quality than that of the ZnO/Si (111) films. These results prove that the SiC buffer layer is useful for modulating the lattice mismatch between ZnO and Si and improving the photoelectric properties of the ZnO films. In addition, a structure model has been proposed to explain the influence of SiC buffer layer. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.