This study demonstrates a pure c-plane AlGaN epilayer grown on a gamma-LiAlO2 (1 0 0) (LAO) substrate with an AlN nucleation layer grown at a relatively low temperature (LT-AlN) by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The AlGaN film forms polycrystalline film with m- and c-plane when the nucleation layer grows at a temperature ranging from 660 to 680 degrees C. However, a pure c-plane AlGaN film with an Al content of approximately 20% can be obtained by increasing the LT-AlN nucleation layer growth temperature to 700 degrees C. This is because the nuclei density of AlN increases as the growth temperature increases, and a higher nuclei density of AlN deposited on LAO substrate helps prevent the deposition of m-plane AlGaN. Therefore, high-quality and crack-free AlGaN films can be obtained with a (0 0 0 2) omega-rocking curve FWHM of 547 arcsec and surface roughness of 0.79 nm (root-mean-square) using a 700-degrees C-grown LT-AlN nucleation layer. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.