Electrically conductive LaNiO3 (LNO) and ferroelectric Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O-3 (PZT) thin films were deposited on single crystal (100)SrTiO3 (STO), (100)LaAlO3 (LAO), and Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si(100) substrates using solution deposition routes. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy were used to investigate the crystallinity and microstructure of the films. The surface bonding states of the PZT and LNO films were determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The average room-temperature dielectric constant of the PZT films, measured at 1 kHz, was in the range 905-1002 and the dissipation factor was below 0.03 for all films. The remnant polarization and coercive electric field of the PZT/LNO films deposited on (100)STO, (100)LAO, and Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates were 30, 32 and 19 mu/cm(2), and 84, 87 and 57 kV/cm, at applied electric field of 450 kV/cm, respectively. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.