The multipulse excimer laser-reactive ablation of a titanium target in nitrogen has been found to result in a total pressure of the ambient gas in the range 7-70 mu bar, in the deposition on to a silicon collector surface of high-purity fcc TiN thin films. These films were hard a nd adherent to substrate. The deposition rate was 0.03-0.05 nm per pulse for an incident laser fluence of greater than or equal to 5 J cm(-2). For a lower gas pressure of a few microbars the deposits were amorphized with an excess of titanium. For a nitrogen pressure larger than 100 mu bar, the layers were contaminated with oxides. The oxides became more abundant with further increase in the gas pressure, and the deposited layer consisted of oxides only when the pressure reached several millibars.