The growth of ZnO films by pulsed laser deposition was systematically studied on three different substrates, namely YSZ(1 1 1), Al2O3(0 0 0 1), and Si(1 0 0). The dependence of the film morphology on oxygen background pressure and substrate temperature was investigated. A strong dependence of the ZnO morphology on all three growth parameters was found allowing for tuning the microscopic structure of ZnO from contiguous film to a columnar growth, and to perfectly aligned nanopillars. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.