By a chemical solution deposition method, 92%Pb(Mg1/3Nb1/3)O-3-8%PbTiO3 (PMNT) thin films have been prepared on LaNiO3 (LNO)-coated (100) silicon and sapphire substrate. X-ray diffraction analysis shows the PMNT thin films on LNO-coated silicon as polycrystals with (100)-preferential orientation. A Pt/PMNT/LNO capacitor has been fabricated and it showed that. the PMNT thin films have obvious ferroelectric character, with saturation polarization (P-s), remanent polarization (P-r) and coercive field (E-c) of 25.5 mu C/cm(2), 11.9 mu C/cm(2) and 168 kV/cm, respectively. The dielectric constant (epsilon(r)) reaches 270 and the dissipation factor is very low at 1 kHz. By the optical transmission spectra measurement, the optical constants (n and k) and absorption coefficient (alpha) of the PMNT thin films on sapphire substrate in the wavelength range of 200-1100 nm are all obtained. The energy gap (E-g) of the PMNT thin films on the sapphire substrate was found to be about 4.03 eV. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.