Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) thin films were grown on LaAlO3 (LAO) and SrTiO3 (STO) substrates by using a pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique at various substrate temperatures. It was found that the nonpolar a-plane GZO thin films were grown on LAO (1 0 0) substrates. However, the polar c-plane or the c-plane coexistent with the a-plane GZO films were obtained on STO (1 0 0) substrates. The in-plane orientational relationship between the GZO films and substrates was also investigated. The electrical properties of the films were deeply affected by the growth orientation. The GZO films with a-axis oriented phase showed higher resistivity than with c-oriented phase, which can be ascribed to the lower mobility due to the increase in grain boundary scattering. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.