Thin films of Sb2-xVxTe3 with x = 0, 0.15, 0.32 and 0.35 have been grown on sapphire (0001) substrates using molecular-beam epitaxy. With the increasing concentration of vanadium, the in-plane lattice constant of Sb2-xVxTe3 films decreases while the c-axis lattice constant shows a very small increase. The electrical resistivity of Sb2-xVxTe3 films decreases by an order of magnitude when V is substituted on the Sb sublattice. The Hall effect measurements show an increase in the concentration of holes as the content of vanadium increases. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.