The temperature-dependent optical properties of ZnTe epilayers grown on GaAs substrates by molecular beam epitaxy with and without ZnSe/ZnTe strained-layer superlattice (SLS) buffer layers have been studied using contactless electroreflectance (CER) and piezoreflectance (PzR). Our ZnTe epilayers of 1.5 &mgr;m in thickness grown on GaAs substrates are under a biaxial tensile strain according to the results shown in CER and PzR spectra. Furthermore, the strain induced energy splitting between heavy- and light-hole valence bands in the ZnTe epilayer can be reduced by using the ZnSe/ZnTe SLS buffer layers. We have also justified the temperature-dependent energy splitting between heavy- and light-hole valence bands for ZnTe through theoretical calculations. Discrepancy between experiments and calculations indicates that the residual mismatch-induced strain as well as the thermally induced strain during cooling must be taken into account at the same time. ©1998 American Institute of Physics.