A highly a-oriented SrBi2Ta2O9 thin him with a polycrystalline structure was deposited on a preferentially oriented (111) Pt/TiO2/SiO2/Si substrate by eclipse Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method. The SrBi2Ta2O9 thin film exhibited flat and smooth surface with the surface roughness of about 0.5 nm resulting from reducing particulates generated by on-axis PLD. The SrBi2Ta2O9 thin film showed a good ferroelectric property with the high remanent polarization of 12 mu C/cm(2) and the low coercive electric field of 140 kV/cm. For the highly a-oriented SBT thin film, domain switching and reading were performed by Kelvin probe force microscope (KFM), The KFM data indicate a good ferroelectric property of the highly a-oriented SrBi2Ta2O9 thin film with high KFM signals that reflect ferroelectric polarizations. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.