The effects of substrate temperature upon the growth rate and photoluminescence property of ZnTe layers grown on the (1 0 0) ZnTe substrate by atmospheric pressure metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy with and without light illumination have been investigated. It has been demonstrated that photo-assisted growth enlarges substrate temperature range for achieving ZnTe layer of good quality compared with thermal growth. ZnTe epitaxial layers of high quality are obtainable under the growth conditions close to the mass transport to surface kinetic transition region.