Cubic ZnMgO thin films in the (100) orientation were grown on Si (111) substrates by reactive electron beamevaporation at low substrate temperature. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses show that Mgcontent as high as 75 at.% in the cubic ZnMgO film can be obtained. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS)measurement indicates the evidence of Mg richness in the interface between the ZnMgO film and the Si substrate,and it is probably the primary reason to form the MgO-like cubic ZnMgO structures rather than the wurtziteone. The optical band gap of cubic ZnMgO is estimated to be 5.76eV, which was measured by the transmissionspectrum of the cubic ZnMgO film grown on the sapphire substrate under the same growth condition with thaton Si (111). The band gap is of 2.39eV blueshifted compared with that of ZnO (3.37eV), which should renderapplications in the fabrication of ZnMgO-related heterostructures.