Nanocrystalline thin films of Pd metal has been deposited using inert gas condensation technique on (1 1 1) oriented Si substrates. The film morphology of Pd films grown under different argon gas pressures has been investigated using atomic force microscope (AFM), in contact mode. The results show that the film morphology depends strongly on argon pressure and the lowest grain size of similar to20 nm is obtained at a pressure of 10(-2) Torr. The films are found to grow with (1 1 1) orientation. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic studies show that grown films are always metallic. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.