Epitaxial thin films of lithium tantalate have been r.f. diode sputtered onto (0001) single-crystal sapphire substrates. X-ray diffraction results show that, as the Li/(Li+Ta) ratio decreased below 0.5, the LiTaO3 (LTO type) c-axis lattice constant increased. An additional lithium tantalate phase is observed to coexist with the LTO-type phase at a Li/(Li+Ta) ratio of around 0.4. When the Li/(Li+Ta) ratio becomes close to 0.25, this additional phase is the only phase observed in the sputter-deposited thin film. Tilt-angle X-ray diffraction results confirmed that this additional phase is ilmenite-type (IL type) Li-(1-x)TaO3.