A 4-6 mu m thick a-plane (1 1 (2) over bar 0) AlN was grown on r-plane sapphire substrate by low-pressure hydride vapor phase epitaxy (LP-HVPE), using a direct growth without any nitridation and buffer layer, a single-step nitridation growth, a two-step nitridation growth and a two-step buffer growth method. For the two-step buffer growth procedure, smoother Surface is observed with the lower full widths at half maximum (FWHM) of X-ray rocking Curves (XRC) compared with the other two kinds of nitridation procedures. A smaller FWHM of in-plane XRC peak anisotropy features are reversed, which is consistent with the smaller in-plane stress anisotropic distribution in a-plane AlN, when the two-step nitridation or buffer growth method is used. In four kinds of initial growth procedures, the two-step buffer method is the suitable method for the growth of a-plane AlN by HVPE with the high crystal quality and more isotropic distribution. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.