The preferred orientation of polycrystalline TiN films grown by ultrahigh‐vacuum reactive‐magnetron sputter deposition on amorphous SiO2at 350 °C in pure N2discharges was controllably varied from (111) to completely (002) by varying the incident ion/metal flux ratioJi/JTifrom 1 to ≥5 with the N+2ion energyEimaintained constant at &bartil;20 eV (&bartil;10 eV per incident accelerated N). All samples were slightly over‐stoichiometric with N/Ti=1.02±0.03. Films deposited withJi/JTi=1 initially exhibit a mixed texture with competitive columnar growth which slowly evolves into a nearly complete (111) texture at film thicknesses greater than 1 &mgr;m. However, films grown withJi/JTi≥5 exhibit an essentially complete (002) preferred orientation from the earliest observable stages. The normalized XRD (002) intensity ratio in thick layers increased from &bartil;0 to 1 asJi/JTiwas varied from 1 to ≥5. Both (111) and (001) interplanar spacings remained constant as a function of film thickness yielding a lattice constant of 0.4240±0.0005 nm, equal to that of unstrained bulk TiN. Contrary to previous models, the present results establish that TiN preferred orientation can be controlled without introducing large in‐plane compressive stress and/or changes in the strain energy as a function of layer thickness. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.