Abstract: In order to study the growth mechanism of a zinc oxide nanorod.Firstly,thin zinc oxide film was deposited on a glass substrate as a seed layer by pulsed laser deposition.Then,well-aligned zinc oxide nanorod arrays were synthesized with hydrothermal method.Effects of growth time on structure,morphology and photoluminescent properties of zinc oxide nanorods were investigated.The results show that zinc oxide nanorods are hexagonal wurtzite structures and grow along the c-axis.Homogenization,compactness,orientation of zinc oxide nanorods are improved with the growth time.The photoluminescent intensity of defect luminescence is enhanced while the excitation photoluminescence is weakened.