The recent development of a commercial band-gap thermometry system for wide band-gap materials such as GaN (the k-Space Associates' "BandiT (TM)") has allowed a systematic study of the relationship between pyrometric or thermocouple temperature-monitoring methods and the directly determined layer temperature. The wide band gap of GaN gives a weak and sample-dependent coupling to radiant heat sources, and it is common in molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) to use a sputtered Mo coating on the rear of the sapphire substrate to improve the efficiency and consistency of heat transfer. We have investigated the role of this backing layer and the use of a PBN diffuser in an MBE chamber, but similar results are expected to be obtained from band-gap thermometry in a metal-organic vapour phase epitaxy (MOVPE) system. The wide range spectrometer used for the band-edge determination can also be employed in a pyrometric mode, at wavelengths both within the band gap of GaN and above it. The latter is insensitive to thickness oscillations, and is less affected by the presence or absence of a Mo backing layer. Results are presented comparing all these measurement techniques, and analysed to show that the Mo backing does not significantly increase the power coupling into the epitaxial layer, although it does improve the accuracy of pyrometric measurements. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.