Pulsed laser deposition has been used to grow Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.41)O-3 (PZT)/LaNiO3 (LNO) bilayer thin films on bare Si(001) and SiO2-coated Si(001) substrates coated with TiN buffer layers. The effect of background gas pressure on the crystallographic texture of the polycrystalline thin films has been investigated in detail. XRD analysis shows that under optimized conditions, (001)-oriented PZT/LNO/TiN heterostructures can be grown on both Si(001) and SiO2/Si substrates. SIMS measurement indicates that there is no inter-diffusion or chemical reaction at PZT/LNO interface, while La and Ni can inward diffuse into the TiN layers. The (001)-textured PZT films have remnant polarizations as high as 23 muC/cm(2) and low coercive fields. Up to 10(10) polarization switching cycles have been achieved in these PZT films. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.