We fabricated cubic AlN (c-AlN) films on MgO (001) substrates via 2-step c-GaN buffer layer by radio-frequency-plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (RF-MBE). The effect of low temperature c-GaN buffer layer on the surface flatness and crystal quality of c-AlN was investigated by AFM and XRD reciprocal space mapping analysis. We examined optical properties of the c-AlN film by spectroscopic ellipsometry. The absorption edge by the direct transition of the c-AlN film was 5.95 eV caused by the hexagonal phase incorporation. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.