Single crystals of ZnxCd1−xTe solid solutions have been grown from a melt under an Ar pressure of about 50 atm. The crystals of uniform composition were grown over the whole range of molar composition, when the crystal growth was performed in excess Zn and/or Cd. A grown boule of 30 × 15 mm &phgr; contained several single‐crystal domains of size 7 × 5 × 5 mm. On the basis of Vegard's law, the molar compositionxwas determined from x‐ray measurements of lattice constants. The variation ofxthroughout a single‐crystal domain was found to be less than ± 1%. Optical experiments including transmittance and reflectance measurements have been made on the cleaved (110) planes at room temperature. The variation of the lowest band gap withxwas determined from the peak positions in the reflectivity spectra. The bowing parameter, which is a measure of the deviation from the linear change, of this gap was found to be 0.33 eV.