Highly oriented SrMoO3 thin films have been fabricated by pulsed laser deposition of SrMoO4 in hydrogen. The films are found to grow along the (100) direction on LaAlO3 (100) and SrTiO3 (100) substrates. The method has been extended for the fabrication of oxynitride thin films, using ammonia as the reducing medium. The resistivity measurements show nonlinear temperature dependent (T-n) behaviour in the temperature interval of 10-300 K. The conduction mechanism is largely affected by the strain due to the substrate lattice. A combination of T and T-2 dependence of resistivity on temperature is observed for films having lesser lattice mismatch with the substrate. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic studies confirm the formation of SrMoO3 and SrMoO3-xNx films. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.