We incorporated a approximate to 5-nm-thick MnOx insertion layer in the middle of a approximate to 1.38-mu m-thick Pb0.92La0.08Zr0.52Ti0.48O3 (PLZT) film grown by a modified sal-gel process and measured the dielectric and ferroelectric properties of PLZT films with and without MnOx insertion layer. By incorporation of the MnOx layer, residual stress was reduced from approximate to 350 MPa to approximate to 125 MPa, dielectric permittivity decreased from approximate to 1300 to approximate to 950, while dielectric loss increased from approximate to 0.04 to approximate to 0.07 as measured at 10 kHz. Also, remanent polarization increased from approximate to 9.1 mu C/cm(2) to approximate to 11.7 mu C/cm(2), coercive field increased from approximate to 28.7 kV/cm to approximate to 40.3 kV/cm, and internal bias field from approximate to 3 kV/cm to approximate to 14 kV/cm. We have observed decreased irreversible Rayleigh coefficient and dielectric nonlinearity on samples with MnOx insertion layer. These changes in properties are attributable to Mn cation doping as acceptors near the MnOx/PLZT interface, which forms oxygen vacancies and defect induced dipoles like 2Mn'(Ti) - V-o(center dot center dot) (or Mn ''(Ti) - V-o(center dot center dot) acting effectively as pinning centers to hinder domain wall movement. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.