Epitaxial Ag films were grown on native oxide covered Si(1 0 0) substrates by an ion beam sputter deposition process at elevated deposition temperatures. At RT, films were observed to be non-epitaxial but with preferred (1 1 1) orientation. However, elevated substrate temperatures and under highly energetic sputter deposition process assist the growth of Ag films, that exhibit an epitaxial relationship with the underlying Si(1 0 0) substrates. With increasing deposition temperature an increase in the crystalline quality was observed with a narrowing mosaic distribution of crystallites and a decrease in the fraction of 1st order twins. The lowest epitaxial growth temperature was observed to be as low as 100 degrees C. (C) 2012 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.