Erbium containing ZnO was prepared by ion beam sputtering deposition and thermal annealing. Alternate ZnO and erbium layers were deposited on silicon substrates at room temperature. Annealed sample shows mixing of erbium and ZnO layers, while strong 980 nm emission was observed under the excitation of a 325 nm laser which is due to the inner 4f transition of Er3+ from I-4(11/2) to I-4(15/2). Under the optimized annealing condition, more than 80% of oxygen atoms are still located in stoichiometric ZnO matrixes. X-ray diffraction analysis shows a shift of ZnO (0 0 2) diffraction peak position to the larger angle value, indicating an elongated c-axis and suggesting the incorporation of erbium ions into ZnO. Variable temperature photoluminescence analysis indicates that the emission at 980 nm is due to energy transfer from defect-related deep level emission of host ZnO to erbium ions. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.