ABSTRACTWe report a comparative study of the exciton emission in free standing HVPE layer for all polarization configurations. A noticeable difference between the emission spectra polarized perpendicular and parallel to the c-axis of the crystal is observed. The spectra for E┴c and EIIc are found to be dominated by the emissions of the donor-bound exciton and exciton-polariton both arising from the A and B valence band, respectively, which clearly reveals the optical selection rules in wurtzite GaN. The temperature evolution of the emission spectra is also examined and the thermal redistribution of the excitons at different polarization is discussed.