Thin AgBr͑001͒ films of up to 100 monolayers thickness epitaxially grown on the NaCl͑001͒ single-crystal surface have been investigated with high-resolution elastic and inelastic helium-atom scattering. Diffraction experiments were used to optimize the film growth conditions to assure a microscopically well-ordered AgBr͑001͒ surface under UHV conditions and provided information on the symmetry of the surface unit cell, surface corrugation amplitude, thermal expansion coefficient, and the surface Debye temperature. From timeof-flight spectra the dispersion curves of the surface Rayleigh mode, the longitudinal acoustic, an optical and a crossing mode were measured out to the Brillouin-zone boundary in the two crystallographic directions ͓100͔ and ͓110͔. ͓S0163-1829͑99͒00323-9͔