Thin films of SmFeO3 have been prepared by the pulsed laser deposition technique on MgO(001) mono-crystalline substrates. The growth of SmFeO3 on MgO(001) substrate has been studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and by reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED). Hetero-epitaxial growth of SmFeO3(110) is evidenced with lattice parameters closed to the bulk orthorhombic values: = congruent tod(110)root2 = 0.5567 nm from XRD and c = 0.78 nm from RHEED. The epitaxial relation found is: the [001] and [110] directions of the SmFeO3 are collinear to the equivalent [100] or [010] orientations of the MgO as confirmed by a pole figure deduced from electron back-scattering diffraction. The polycrystalline Sm-orthoferrite outgrowth is estimated to be approximately 1%. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.