Non-polar relaxed cubic GaN was grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on nano-patterned 3C-SiC/Si (0 0 1) substrates with negligible hexagonal content and less defect density than in planar cubic GaN layers. Nano-patterning of 3C-SiC/Si (0 0 1) is achieved by self-ordered colloidal masks for the first time. The method presented here offers the possibility to create nano-patterned cubic GaN without the need for a GaN etching process and thus is a potential alternative to the conventional top-down fabrication techniques. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.