We report low‐resistive Au ohmic contact for a molecular beam epitaxy grown nitrogen dopedp‐type ZnTe (p‐ZnTe:N) layer with high thermal stability, where thep‐ZnTe surface is treated by oxygen plasma and HCl solution prior to Au film deposition. C contamination and native oxide layers of ZnTe are removed by oxygen plasma and HCl treatment, respectively, from the surface. As a result, a Te‐rich layer is formed on the surface. The annealing temperature dependence of specific contact resistance is investigated. The specific contact resistance of Au ohmic contact forp‐ZnTe:N with carrier concentration of 2×1018cm−3treated by oxygen plasma and HCl solution reaches as low as 5.8×10−6&OHgr; cm2at an annealing temperature of 350 °C. This specific contact resistance value is the same as that of the reported Pd/(Pt)/Au contact forp‐ZnTe:N with carrier concentration of 3×1019cm−3, and clearly shows higher thermal stability. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.