Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) has been used to fabricate simple thin f
ilm capacitor structures with a variety of ferroelectric materials. Th
in film capacitors using the conventional ferroelectric material BaxSr
1-xTiO3(BSTO) have been made across the entire compositional series. E
lectrical characterization shows that in thin film form these ferroele
ctrics display Curie point behaviour which is largely independent of c
omposition. This contrasts sharply with bulk behaviour. The thin film
fabrication and characterization of relaxer ferroelectric ceramics, su
ch as Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O-3(PMN) and Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O-3-BaTiO3(PZN-BT), is
also reported. (C) 1998 Chapman & Hall.