Until recently, molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) has been behind metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) as a growth technique for III-nitride thin films, due to the lack of nitrogen source powerful enough for the growth in vacuum and the understanding of growth mechanism. We have clarified that the quality of GaN epilayers on sapphire substrates grown by N2 plasma-assisted MBE can be much improved by realizing Ga-polarity growth mode, which enables us to fabricate HFETs using the MBE-grown AlGaN/GaN 2DEG structures. The Ga-polarity growth mode was found to be achieved by Al high temperature buffer process, In flux exposure etc., and directly confirmed by coaxial impact collision ion scattering spectroscopy (CAICISS) technique. The relation between the surface reconstruction structure of GaN epilayers and the lattice polarity of the epilayers is also shown. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.