The band alignment at the SiO 2-GaN interface is important for passivation of high voltage devices and for gate insulator applications. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy have been used to observe the interface electronic states as SiO 2 was deposited on clean GaN͑0001͒ surfaces. The substrates, grown by metallorganic chemical vapor deposition, were n-(1ϫ10 17) and p-type (2ϫ10 18) GaN on 6H-SiC͑0001͒ with an AlN͑0001͒ buffer layer. The GaN surfaces were atomically cleaned via an 860°C anneal in an NH 3 atmosphere. For the clean surfaces, n-type GaN showed upward band bending of 0.3Ϯ0.1 eV, while p-type GaN showed downward band bending of 1.3Ϯ0.1 eV. The electron affinity for n-and p-type GaN was measured to be 2.9Ϯ0.1 and 3.2Ϯ0.1 eV, respectively. To avoid oxidizing the GaN, layers of Si were deposited on the clean GaN surface via ultrahigh vacuum e-beam deposition, and the Si was oxidized at 300°C by a remote O 2 plasma. The substrates were annealed at 650°C for densification of the SiO 2 films. Surface analysis techniques were performed after each step in the process, and yielded a valence band offset of 2.0Ϯ0.2 eV and a conduction band offset of 3.6Ϯ0.2 eV for the GaN-SiO 2 interface for both p-and n-type samples. Interface dipoles of 1.8 and 1.5 eV were deduced for the GaN-SiO 2 interface for the n-and p-type surfaces, respectively.