Zn 0.85 Sb 0.1 O films were synthesized by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and photoluminescence (PL) measurements were carried out to evaluate the microstructure of the films. These films exhibited a single-phase hexagonal structure with (002) preferred orientation, despite the high Sb content of ∼10% and the resulting large lattice distortion in the films. Moreover, the films showed semiconductor properties with high resistivity of ∼10 4 Ωcm, which was possibly related to a compensation of intrinsic defects. Compared with the undoped ZnO, a reduction in the band gap by 40meV was clearly observed in ultraviolet–visible absorption spectra.