Thin films of boron nitride (BN) have been deposited on Si(1 0 0) substrates by reactive pulsed laser ablation (PLA) of a boron target in the presence of a 13.56 MHz radio frequency (RF) nitrogen plasma. The gaseous species have been deposited at several substrate temperatures, using the on-axis configuration. The film properties have been investigated by Scanning Electron Microscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy, Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction characterization techniques, and compared to those resulting from the conventional PLA method. The behavior of hexagonal-BN and cubic-BN phases grown by PLA as function of substrate temperature is also reported. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.