Epitaxial growth of sexithiophene (6 T) thin films was achieved on KBr (001) under the optimum condition. Atomic force microscopy revealed that the initially formed in-plane orientation was caused by adsorption of 6 T molecules to the native steps on K Br and it helped formation of single-crystalline domains larger than 30 x 30 mum(2). The use of substrate steps as an epitaxial template shows the possibility to create high quality 6 T films with potentially large carrier mobility. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.