dA low temperature synthetic method recently proposed by the authors was applied to the fabrication of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin films containing crystalline seeds of barium strontium titanate (BST) nanoparticles. PZT precursor and the BST particles were prepared with complex alkoxide methods. Precursor solution suspending the BST particles was spin-coated on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrate to film thickness of 500-800 nm at particle concentrations of 0-25.1 mol%, and annealed at various temperatures. Seeding of BST particles prevented the formation of pyrochlore phases, which appeared at temperatures above 400 degreesC in unseeded PZT films, and induced crystallization of PZT into perovskite structures at 420 degreesC, which was more than 100 degreesC below the crystallization temperature of the unseeded PZT films. Measurement of dielectric properties at 1 kHz showed that the 25.1 mol% BST-seeded PZT films annealed at 450 degreesC had a dielectric constant as high as 300 with a dissipation factor of 0.05. Leakage current density of the film was less than 1 X 10(-6) A/cm(2) at applied electric field from 0 to 64 kV/cm. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.