ZnO thin films were epitaxially grown by atomic layer deposition on both of GaN/c-sapphire and yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) substrates for comparison. X-ray diffraction, cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and photoluminescence (PL) measurements show that epitaxial ZnO films have better structural qualities and optical properties on GaN than on YSZ, whereas atomic force microscopy (AFM) shows that the surface of ZnO films on YSZ is smoother than on GaN. From the ZnO thickness measured by TEM, the growth rate of ZnO on GaN is about one (0 0 0 2) monolayer per cycle, which is roughly four times of that on YSZ. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.