  We present a detailed investigation concerning the exciton dynamics in GaN
epilayers grown on c-plane sapphire substrates, focussing on the exciton
formation and the transition from the nonthermal to the thermal regime. The
time-resolved kinetics of LO-phonon replicas is used to address the energy
relaxation in the excitonic band. From ps time-resolved spectra we bring
evidence for a long lasting non-thermal excitonic distribution which accounts
for the rst 50 ps. Such a behavior is con rmed in di erent experimental
conditions, both when non-resonant and resonant excitation are used. At low
excitation power density the exciton formation and their subsequent
thermalization is dominated by impurity scattering rather than by acoustic
phonon scattering. The estimate of the average energy of the excitons as a
function of delay after the excitation pulse provides information on the
relaxation time, which describes the evolution of the exciton population to the
thermal regime.
