The results of a photoemission study of icosahedral single-grain ZnMg(Y, Ho) quasicrystals and their crystalline approximant Zn2Mg are presented. Synchrotron radiation photoemission measurements have been performed on in situ cleaved samples at low temperature of approximate to90 K and 10(-10) mbar pressure. The spectra obtained indicate simple metal-type valence bands (VB) with distinct Fermi edge cutoff. Analysis of the Fermi edge spectra reveals the presence of a pseudogap in i-ZnMg(Y, Ho) quasicrystals. The pseudogap corresponds to a rather sharp DOS dip at the Fermi level with th approximate to50% (of the normal DOS) depth and the approximate to0.8 eV width. The values of i-ZnMg(Y, Ho) pseudogap parameters are comparable with those of other quasicrystals. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.