Polycrystalline ZnO films are prepared using radio frequency magnetron sputtering on glass substrates which are sputter-etched for different time. Both the size of ZnO grains and the root-mean-square (RMS) roughness decrease, as the sputter-etching time of the substrate increases. More Zn atoms are bound to O atoms in the films, and the defect concentration is decreased with increasing sputter-etching time of substrate. Meanwhile, the crystallinity and c-axis orientation are improved at longer s...