A-plane GaN was attempted to be grown on (11-20) 4H-SiC bulk substrate without using a traditional thick buffer layer. By inducing TMAl treatment before the GaN growth step and using both a low pressure and V/III ratio, the interlayer thickness of the a-plane GaN/SiC was reduced to 1.7 +/- 0.5 nm. The ultrathin interlayer was observed to be either AlN or AlGaN with a low Ga composition. This study is aimed to contribute to the understanding of GaN growth on the sidewalls of c-plane trench structure SiC. The ultrathin growth technique is also hoped to be applied to the fabrication of GaN-based vertical structure nonpolar optical or electrical devices.