Metal-ceramic interfaces are important in applications as diverse as magnetic storage media and supported catalysts. It is very important to understand how the crystallography and microstructure of metallic films deposited onto ceramic substrates depend on growth and/or annealing conditions so that their physical properties (e.g. magnetic, electronic, etc.) can be tailored for specific applications. To this end, we have studied the epitaxial growth and annealing of (0 0 1) Ni films molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) grown on MgO substrates, where we have observed the evolution of the surface using correlated in situ reflection high-energy-electron diffraction (RHEED) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) measurements. We have compared our data with that of (I 1 1) Ni films similarly grown on MgO. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.