The ultrafast relaxation dynamics of hot electrons, initially photoexcited with an excess energy of 300 meV, are monitored in a high-quality ZnSe epilayer grown on a GaAs substrate by exploiting the intrinsic interferrometric asymmetric Fabry–Perot sample structure. The results are consistent with the expected characteristic electronic LO-phonon emission time of 40–50 fs and provide evidence for the influence of the “hot phonon effect”(or “LO-phonon bottleneck”) on the electron cooling dynamics at carrier densities above∼3×1017 cm−3.©1997 American Institute of Physics.