Ba(Zr0.20Ti0.80)O-3 (BZT) thin films were deposited on Pt(111)/Ti/SiO2/Si(100), LaNiO3 (LNO) and CeO2-buffered Pt(111)/Ti/SiO2/ Si(100) substrates by sol-gel process. The BZT thin films directly grown on Pt(111)/Ti/SiO2/Si(100) substrates exhibited highly (111) preferred orientation, while the films deposited on Pt(I I l)/Ti/Si02/Si(100) substrates with LNO and CeO2 buffer layers showed, respectively, highly (100) and (110) preferred orientation. At 1 MHz, the dielectric constants were 416, 465 and 245 for the BZT thin films grown on Pt(111)/Ti/SiO2/Si(100), LNO and CeO2-buffered Pt(111)/Ti/SiO2/Si(100) substrates, respectively. The difference in dielectric properties of these three kinds of BZT films may be attributed to the different grain sizes and various orientations. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.