Nanocrystalline GaN films with different crystallite sizes were deposited onto quartz and NaCl substrates by magnetron sputtering of a GaN target in argon plasma. All the films showed predominant hexagonal phase. The band gap values were always found to be higher than that of the bulk. This blue shift in band gap could be attributed to the quantum confinement effect. The optical absorption in these films could be explained by the combined effects of phonon and inhomogeneity broadening along with optical loss due to light scattering at the nanocrystallites. Band edge luminescence is absent in these GaN nanocrystalline films. The line shapes of the photoluminescence (PL) spectra are asymmetric and broad. The film deposited at lower substrate temperature showed broader PL peak. It may be observed that no significant energy shift in the peak positions was observed with reduction in crystallite size but the intensity of the peak decreased for films with the reduction in crystallite size. Below band gap emission observed in this study may also originate due to the presence of polarization-induced electric field present in wurtzite GaN deposited here. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.