ZnO particles were produced by dropping Zn powder into a heated boat just below the plasma electrodes in a mixture gas of argon and oxygen. The resulting particles look spherical with the size of 30 nm and were of tetrapod configuration having four [0 0 0 1] axes of ZnO. The dispersion became better than that in the case of another method without plasma. The ultraviolet-visible light transmittance of the specimen showed sharp absorption. The electric charge in the plasma field controlled the coalescence growth of each particle and improved the dispersion of the particles due to the plasma effect. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.