Bi3.25La0.75Ti3O12 (BLT) thin films were fabricated on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si(1 0 0) substrates by chemical solution deposition (CSD), and the dependence of ferroelectric and dielectric properties of the as-deposited BLT thin films on excess Bi content in precursor sols was studied. It is found that the prepared BLT thin film shows the best polarization-electric field, capacitance-voltage and dielectric constant (epsilon(r))-frequency characteristics, when the value of excess Bi content in precursor sols is 10%. In detail, its remnant polarization (2P(r)) value is 40 mu C/cm(2), the capacitance tunability is 21% measured at room temperature under conditions of an applied voltage of 8 V and measurement frequency of 10 kHz, and the epsilon(r) is 696 at 100 kHz frequency. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.