Ultrasonic rinsing procedure was introduced to successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method. ZnO nanocluster porous films were successfully deposited on glass substrate using zinc-ammonia complexed precursor. The crystallinity, microstructure, optical properties and photoluminescence were measured and analyzed for both as-deposited and annealed films. Effects of experimental parameters and heat treatment on the structural and optical properties were discussed. Results show that as-deposited ZnO film exhibits excellent crystallinity with the preferential orientation of (0 0 2) plane. A porous feature with interconnected particles of 200-400 nm in ZnO films was observed, with each ZnO particle formed by the aggregation of many crystallites in size of 30-50 nm. The low transmittance due to scattering losses over the porous ZnO layer down to 16% was detected. The annealing at 400 degreesC can promote the preferential orientation along (1 0 0) plane, the interfusion of adjacent particles and the reduction of scattering loss. Intense and sharp ultraviolet emission peaks at 392 mn dominates the PL spectra for both as-deposited and annealed samples, indicating the good optical quality of ZnO layer. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.