Biaxially oriented nonlinear dielectric Ba0.6Sr0.4TiO3 (BST) films have been grown on polycrystalline ferrite yttrium iron garnet (YIG) substrates. We use a structurally and chemically compatible MgO buffer to improve the crystallinity of the BST on polycrystalline YIG substrates, where the biaxially oriented MgO is deposited by an ion-beam assisted-deposition technique. The biaxially oriented BST has a dielectric loss of less than 0.01 and a capacitance tunability of greater than 25% at a direct current bias voltage of 40 V at room temperature. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99)00411-8].