TiN(001)[100]‖Si(001)[100] parallel epitaxy of thin films grown by pulsed reactive crossed-beam laser ablation (KrF, 248 nm) is investigatedin situby reflection high-energy electron diffraction andex situby x-ray diffraction, full-hemispherical X-ray photoelectron diffraction and low-energy electron diffraction. TiN films are grown on atomically flat, initially two domain 2×1 reconstructed Si(001) surfaces at100⩽T⩽800° C.Parallel epitaxy is found to prevail atT⩾400 °Cwith growth rates in the10−2monolayer/pulse−1range and a repetition rate of 2 Hz. The substrate and film morphologies are investigated using atomic force microscopy. ©1997 American Institute of Physics.