The structural, optical, and magnetic properties of columnar-structured (Zn1-xMnx)O thin films, and the correlation between microstructural properties and magnetic properties have been investigated. For X-ray diffraction and photoluminescence measurements, the columnar-structured (Zn0.93Mn0.07)O thin films showed the only (0 0 0 peak and they revealed emissions from donor-acceptor pairs and V-II vacancies. For measurements of the magnetization of the columnar-structured (Zn0.93Mn0.07)O thin films, the typical paramagnetism was observed and the value of magnetization was dependent on the configuration of crystal grains. This result indicates that the magnetic property of the columnar-structured (Zn0.93Mn0.07)O thin film is closely related to the crystal magnetic anisotropy, because it was observed that the film texture and the lattice distribution were dependent on the growth temperature and that the magnetization value of the film was changed with the variation of these crystal information. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.