Nonpolar a-plane (1120) ZnO thin films have been fabricated on gamma-LiAlO(2) (302) substrates via the low-pressure metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. An obvious intensity variation of the E(2) mode in the Raman spectra indicates that there exhibits in-plane optical anisotropy in the a-plane ZnO thin films. Highly-oriented uniform grains of rectangular shape can be seen from the atomic force microscopy images, which mean that the lateral growth rate of the thin films is also anisotropic. It is demonstrated experimentally that a buffer layer deposited at a low temperature (200 degrees C) can improve the structural and optical properties of the epilayer to a large extent. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.