Ternary alloy BeZnO and quaternary alloy BeMgZnO films were prepared on sapphire (0 0 1) substrate by radio-frequency plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (RF-PAMBE). Based on X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, no phase segregation is observed for all the alloys. However, Be Zn O alloys exhibit a constantly worse crystal quality than Be Mg Zn O alloys at the similar incorporation contents (i.e. x in BeZnO approximately equals to x + y in BeMgZnO). Optical transmittance spectra were recorded to determine the energy band gap of the films. BeMgZnO was revealed more effective in widening the band gap. Finally, BeZnO and BeMgZnO based MSM structure UV detectors were fabricated. BeMgZnO alloys with better crystal quality showed a favorable optical response and the cutoff wavelength shifted continuously to deep ultraviolet range, while BeZnO based detectors were found no response. This is the first report on BeMgZnO based UV detector, which is a meaningful step forward to the real application. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.