The effect of pulse amplitude on the ferroelectric and switching properties of pulsed laser deposited Ba0.8Sr0.2TiO3 thin films has been studied. The structural and morphological analysis revealed that the films had a well crystallized perovskite phase and grain size of about 30-40 nm. A well saturated P-E hysteresis loop was observed with a remnant polarization (Pr) approximate to 4.8 mu C/cm(2) and a coercive field approximate to 100 kV/cm at a frequency of 1 kHz. The P-r has been found to be decreased only 4.3% after passing 8.0 x 10(8) cycles. The analysis of switching response with nucleation limited switching model reveals that characteristic switching time (t(0)) variance is due to the random distribution of the local electric fields. The peak value of polarization current and t(0) exhibits exponential dependence on reciprocal of pulse amplitude. (C) 2012 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.