Epitaxial zinc oxide layers were grown by plasma-enhanced molecular beam epitaxy (P-MBE) on Al2O3 substrates. The zinc oxide films grown on c-plane (0 0 1) Al2O3 showed the formation of well-known 30 degrees rotation domains. By variation of the growth parameters, basically the II/VI ratio, the formation of rotation domains was successful suppressed and the expected relationships between substrate and film shaped. The influence of other growth parameters, such as growth temperature and film thickness, on the formation of rotation domains was found to be insignificant. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.