Abstract: Reactive d.c. magnetron sputtering was adopted to prepare ZnO thin films on glass and four kinds of Si substrates. Structural properties were then valued by AES and XRD to show that these ZnO films were homogeneous in vertical section, with high crystallinity, and had a preferred orientation with the c axis normal to the substrate surface. Moreover, the structural properties of ZnO films deposited on Si substrates were generally better than that of ZnO films on glass.