Thick ZnTe grown on III-V substrates is proposed as a low-cost virtual substrate for electronic and optoelectronic device applications based on 6.1 angstrom compound semiconductors. This paper reports the growth of ZnTe samples on GaAs, InP, InAs and GaSb (0 0 1) substrates using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high-resolution electron microscopy (HREM) are used to characterize the structural properties, and photoluminescence (PL) is used to characterize the optical properties. XRD analysis indicates there are residual tensile strains in ZnTe epilayers due to the difference in thermal expansion coefficients between the ZnTe epilayers and the different substrate materials. HREM images reveal the presence of Lomer edge and 60 degrees partial dislocations at the interfaces between ZnTe epilayers and GaAs and InP substrates. Visible photoluminescence from ZnTe epilayers is observed from 80 to 300 K. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.