Er doped ZnO thin films were grown on Si substrates using SiO2 buffer layer by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method.The obtained films crystallize well and show high c-axis orientation.The Er content was evidently detected by the energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS).Upon annealing in O2 ambience at different temperatures, the films show different photoluminescence properties at 1.54 μm.The samples annealed at 700 and 850 ℃ show intense photoluminescence peaks which enhance with the annealing temperature, while no obvious luminescence peaks are observed for the as-grown samples or annealed at 500 ℃.The possible mechanism was discussed.