Atmospheric pressure vapor-phase growth was demonstrated for the growth of zinc oxide (ZnO) films on sapphire (0 0 0 1) substrates. The X-ray diffractogram showed a typical pattern of ZnO having a hexagonal structure, and a full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of 23.3 min was obtained in the X-ray diffraction profile. The growth rate of the ZnO film increased from 0.1 to 8.0 mu m/h with increasing growth temperature and input partial pressures of ZnCl2 and O-2, respectively. A strong band edge emission at 370.0 nm was observed in the photoluminescence spectra at 20 K.