The growth temperature depencence of the epitaxy and lattice distortion of 40 A thick V(0 0 1) films deposited on MgO(0 0 1) by triode sputtering is presented. High-quality epitaxial films are obtained for deposition temperatures between room temperature (RT) and 400 degreesC. For these temperatures, V grows under compression in the surface plane, matching almost perfectly the in-plane MgO lattice by a 45degrees rotation, irrespective of the deposition temperature and yielding to the formation of coherent V-MgO interfaces. Correspondingly, the out-of-plane V lattice parameters exhibit an expansion, maximum for room temperature deposition, that gradually decreases as deposition temperature increases. A strong reduction and the extinction of the V(200) diffraction peak is observed for 500 and 600degreesC deposition temperatures, respectively, probably due to the V amorphization for these deposition temperatures. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.