The detailed crystalline structure of molecular beam epitaxially grown MnAs thin films on InP(001) substrate has been investigated using high resolution X-ray diffraction techniques. Reciprocal space mapping of the MnAs/InP(001) samples indicates that the MnAs has a cubic zinc-blende (zb) structure with the epitaxial relationship zb-MnAs[110]parallel to InP[110]. The lattice constant of zb-MnAs is similar to 6.06 angstrom. The MnAs lattice is relaxed and is mosaic-like likely due to large lattice mismatch between the film and InP substrate. The isotropic nature of the magnetic properties supported our conjecture that the MnAs epitaxial film under study has indeed a cubic structure. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.