Graphitic carbon films prepared by using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on metal templates with different thicknesses deposited on SiO2/Si substrates are investigated in this paper. With thick Cu templates, only graphitic carbon flakes are obtained near the Cu grain boundaries at low growth temperatures on metal/SiO2 interfaces. By replacing the Cu templates with thin Ni templates, complete graphitic carbon films with superior crystalline quality is obtained at 600 degrees C on SiO2/Si substrates after removing the Ni templates. The enhanced attachment of the graphitic carbon film to the SiO2/Si substrates with reduced Ni thickness makes the approach a promising approach for transferring-free graphene preparation at low temperature by using MBE. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.