The growth of single crystalline oxides on silicon substrates still remains to be a significant technological subject, since the fruitful achievements can be expected for various silicon device technologies. We have ever examined the possibility of BaZrO3 crystallization at low temperature and at low oxygen partial pressure, by a pulsed laser beam deposition technique. We confirmed that the BaZrO3 films on SrTiO3 (0 0 1) substrate could be epitaxially grown at the temperature as low as 500degreesC, and that the excellent crystallinity of BaZrO3 can be obtained in the film grown at the low oxygen partial pressure, such as 2.0 x 10(-8) Torr. However of this, the epitaxially grown of BaZrO3 thin films on Si (0 0 1) have not been obtained even at such a low oxygen partial pressure during deposition. This is considered to be due to the formation of the interfacial layer, which is amorphous SiO2 or crystallized SiC depending upon the substrate temperature. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.