Homo- and heteroepitaxial growth of non-polar Zinc oxide (ZnO) (1 1 (2) over bar 0) films was achieved on single crystal ZnO (1 1 (2) over bar0) and sapphire (0 1 (1) over bar2) substrates by an atmospheric pressure metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) using zinc acetylacetonate and oxygen gas. The full-widths at half-maximum (FWHM) of X-ray diffraction patterns of grazing incident diffraction measurement of homoepitaxial ZnO films were smaller by one order of magnitude than those., of heteroepitaxial ZnO films. A striped pattern along the c-axis of ZnO was clearly observed in homoepitaxial films deposited at 650 degrees C. Room temperature photoluminescence spectra of homoepitaxial films exhibited only a strong near-band-edge emission. Free exciton emissions were clearly observed in the photoluminescence spectra of homoepitaxial ZnO films at 5K. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.