(Pb0.72La0.28)Ti0.93O3 (PLT)/Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O-3 (PZT)/PLT heterostructure was fabricated by using a pulsed laser deposition method. After depositing this structure, the hydrogen annealing process was performed in the forming gas (95% N-2 + 5% H-2) at a substrate temperature of 400 degrees C for 30 min to study the effects of hydrogen passivation. The heterostructure was not degraded by the hydrogen annealing in contrast with the case of PZT film without buffer layers. This heterostructure showed almost no degradation in terms of the remanent polarization even after the H, annealing, while the PZT film exhibited 64% reduction, which is from 20.1 to 7.3 mu C/cm(2) after the annealing. The leakage current was decreased by an order in the case of the heterostructure, while the leakage current of the PZT film increased by an order. These can be explained that the PLT bottom buffer layer works as a seeing layer to help the PZT growth and the top PLT buffer layer acts as a barrier for penetrating hydrogen atoms. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.