A study of the reactive sputtering of aluminum was carried out by coupling energy flux measurements at the substrate location with conventional diagnostics of the gas phase and analyses of the deposited films. The main purpose was to get some insight into the elementary mechanisms involved at the substrate surface during the film growth in the well known metal and oxide regimes and at the transitions from one to another. Measurements were carried out in front of a 10 cm Al target at a power of 400 W (i.e. 5 W/cm(2)) and a total pressure of 0.6 Pa. The flow rate ratio (O-2/O-2 + Ar) was varied in the range 0 to 50%. Different kinetics and values of energy transfer, denoting different involved mechanisms, were evidenced at metal-oxide (increasing flow rate) and oxide-metal (decreasing flow rate) transitions. The metal-oxide transition was found to be a progressive process, in agreement with optical emission spectroscopy and deposit analysis, characterized by an increase of the energy flux that could be due to the oxidation of the growing metal film. On the contrary, oxide-metal transition is abrupt, and a high energy is released at the beginning that could not be attributed to a chemical reaction. The possible effect of O- ions at this step was discussed. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.