AbstractWe reported that zinc oxide (ZnO) films deposited by direct current (DC)‐mode electrocyclotron resonance (ECR) and radio frequency (RF)‐mode ECR sputtering systems had shown excellent piezoelectric properties and c‐axis orientations. The RF‐mode ECR sputtering system was capable of depositing ZnO films on glass substrates without evidence of column and fiber grains in cross‐section analysis while driving a 1.1‐GHz fundamental Rayleigh surface acoustic wave (SAW). In this paper, we investigate the properties of ZnO film deposited by an RF‐magnetron‐mode ECR sputtering system which has added magnets to the outside of a cylindrical zinc metal (Zn) target of the RF‐mode ECR sputtering system. The ZnO film on the glass substrate deposited by this system was capable of driving a 1.3‐GHz fundamental Rayleigh SAW. This shows a higher frequency than the previously reported ZnO film. This film exhibits most of the same effective electromechanical coupling factors (keff) as the theoretical keff values calculated by finite‐element method (FEM) using the constants of ZnO single crystal (that is, 97 percent of theoretical value) and 0.6 ∼ 3.6 dB lower insertion loss in comparison with the films deposited by the DC‐mode ECR and the RF‐mode ECR. A (1120) plane epitaxial ZnO film was deposited at low temperatures on an R‐plane sapphire substrate using this system and was capable of driving a 2.54‐GHz Sezawa wave. By measuring the photoluminescence property of a thin, 1.2‐μm, epitaxial ZnO film, free exitons are observed for the first time.