Lasing in disordered media (random lasers) has been the subject of intense theoretical and experimental studies since the pioneering work of Letokhov and co-workers [1]. With a wide bandgap of 3.36 eV at room temperature and large exciton binding energy of 60 meV (excitons being stable up to room temperature), ZnO holds a great promise for random laser applications provided structures with relevant light scattering properties are produced. Random lasing has been mainly demonstrated in ZnO powders and nanocrystalline films. Recently, a new method to produce ZnO random laser media with controlled morphology on the basis of ZnSe templates has been proposed [2]. In this paper we show that this approach can be extended to ZnTe templates. In contrast to ZnSe, the as-grown ZnTe crystals are of p-type conductivity, while the ZnO material produced on their basis is of n-type. This approach could open prospects for the development of random laser media with electrical pumping. Nanostructured ZnO has been produced by two methods. ZnTe bulk crystals have been annealed in a temperature interval from 300 oC to 800 oC with the first method. Photoluminescence (PL) and X-ray diffraction investigations demonstrated a gradual transformation of the initial ZnTe material into ZnO nanocrystallites with the morphology illustrated in Fig. 1a. The mean grain size of the crystallites is around 300 nm. The as-grown sample shows a band-edge emission peak at 2.377 eV related to the recombination of bound excitons followed by two dipper bands at 2.340 eV and 2.314 eV attributed to donor-acceptor pair (DAP) recombination and its LO phonon replica. Apart from near-band-edge emissions, a broad and structured deep-level-related PL band is observed at lower photon energies. This band corresponds to a zerophonon line at 2.245 eV with a series of phonon replica attributed to another DAP transition. Annealing at 400 oC leads to the emergence of PL bands related to ZnO crystallites. Only PL bands of the ZnO component remain in the PL spectrum of samples annealed at 700 oC. These results indicate that high-quality ZnO material with uniform porosity is easily obtained by using the technological approach involved. The high optical quality of the material is also demonstrated by the comparison of its PL spectrum with the spectrum of a high quality ZnO single crystal. In both samples, the PL spectrum is dominated by the emission related to the recombination of donor bound D0X excitons. With a second approach, a template of ZnTe nanowires with a mean diameter around 50 nm is produced by electrochemical treatment of ZnTe crystals. The ZnTe nanowires are consequently transformed into ZnTe nanowires by thermal treatment. The PL spectra of the ZnTe, and ZnO nanowires are similar to those of the as-grown ZnTe crystals, and ZnO nanocrystals, respectively. The photonic strength of the produced ZnO nanocrystalline medium was investigated by means of enhanced backscattering EBS measurements, which revealed a photon transport mean free path lt = 1.5 mm suitable for random laser applications. The random lasing characteristics of the produced ZnO structures were investigated at room temperature under the pumping by the third harmonic of a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser.figureFig. 1. The morphology of the produced ZnO nanocrystalline medium (a) and the PL spectra (b).