Vanadium carbide thin films were deposited on Si substrates by direct current reactive magnetron sputtering from a V target in Ar/CH(4) plasma, varying the Ar/CH(4) partial pressure ratio and substrate temperature. The films were characterized by glancing angle X-ray diffraction and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry. Well defined crystalline structures were obtained for CH(4) content higher than 13%. The increase of substrate temperature during deposition diminishes the film thickness slightly while diminishing substantially the C/V atomic ratio. The intensity ratio of the Bragg peaks (111)/(200) decreases for increasing substrate temperature. This result is discussed in terms of a proposed mechanism for interstitial diffusion of carbon atoms in vanadium carbide thin films with fcc-like crystalline structure and the temperature dependence of carbon occupancy of tetrahedral or octahedral interstitial sites. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.