Pulsed laser deposition technique was used to grow off c-axis oriented SrBi2(Ta0.95V0.05)(2)O-9 (SBTV) ferroelectric thin films. X-ray diffraction studies revealed the c-axis suppression in the films grown at lower substrate temperature (similar to 350degreesC) followed by annealing at higher temperatures (greater than or equal to 650 degreesC). In-plane lattice parameters of the films were decreased with increase in annealing temperature. SBTV films annealed at 750 degreesC exhibited enhanced ferroelectric properties with remanent polarization ( 2P(r)) of similar to31.5 muC/cm(2) and coercive field (E-c) of similar to 157 kV/cm. The dielectric permmitivity of the films increased with increase in annealing temperature and it was attributed to the grain size dependence. The films annealed at 750 degreesC showed maximum value of dielectric permittivity similar to 172 with a tangential loss of 0.1, at 100 kHz. Higher value of dissipation factor at lower annealing temperature is explained in terms of space charge accumulation at grain boundaries. The leakage current densities of the films follow ohmic behavior at low field regime and space charge limited current dominates at higher fields. (C) 2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers.