The growth of epitaxial high-kappa oxides on silicon has recently become a field of intense researches, due to the potential applications of these heterostructures in Complementary-Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) systems, but also for the integration of functional oxides or III-V semiconductors on Si. Some of the key advances in epitaxy of SrTiO(3), gamma-Al(2)O(3) and Gd(2)O(3) epitaxial films on Si(001) and Si(111) substrates are reviewed. It is shown that MBE affords unique advantages in interface engineering by controlling growth parameters. The conformation of the O sublattice of the oxide is shown to play a predominant role on the crystallographic orientations of the oxide layers with respect to the substrate. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.