Pulsed laser deposition of nitride semiconductors offers an alternative to typically employed growth techniques, such as metalorganic chemical vapor deposition and molecular beam epitaxy. PLD can produce good quality thin films at reduced growth temperatures. Growth of these materials requires provision of excess nitrogen in a reactive form during deposition. In our approach, we provide the reactive nitrogen by a low-energy atomic beam. This has the advantage of reducing dependence on substrate temperature to surmount the kinetic barrier for compound formation while avoiding a source of hydrogen during growth. Plume wandering occurring in some cases was effectively deterred by a dual-beam technique. Good quality films were successfully produced for InN, from metallic indium targets, for GaN, from both metallic gallium and ceramic GaN targets, for ALN, from ceramic AIN targets, and for InxGa1-xN, from an In/Ga slurry. Growth rates are low except for InN, but there is scope for increasing rates without affecting quality. Films were grown on sapphire, silicon, and glass substrates, at a range of temperatures from ambient to 700 degreesC for ALN and GaN, from ambient to 400 degreesC for InN, and from ambient to 600 degreesC for InxGa1-xN. Films are textured in all cases, very strongly so for the higher temperatures. Composition of the binary materials, as determined from RES analysis, was nominally stoichiometric. Luminescence results were obtained for all types of film, except, for lack of suitable excitation source, AlN. Direct interband luminescence was observed from thin GaN films grown directly on sapphire. Nearly all films showed broad luminescence response attributed to defects, which are not yet understood. InxGa1-xN films produced had compositions from nearly pure GaN to x > 0.3, depending on growth temperature. Absorption coefficients as functions of photon energy were measured for all films on transparent substrates. Interband edge absorption values for the binary films correspond well with known values. For the InxGa1-xN films the absorption edge values were correlated to composition as determined from X-ray diffraction results.