In order to study the effect of different buffer layers on the Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O-3 (PZT) thin films, 10-nm thick (Pb0.72La0.28)Ti0.93O3 (PLT) and Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O-3 buffer layers have been deposited on the Pt(1 1 1)/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates by pulsed laser deposition, respectively. The top buffer layers were also deposited on PZT thin films with the same thickness of the seed layers in order to enhance the fatigue characteristics of PZT thin films. We compared the results of dielectric constant, hysteresis loops and fatigue resistance characteristics. It was found that the dielectric properties of PZT thin films with PLT buffer layers were improved by comparing with PZT thin films with PZT buffer layers. The polarization characteristics of PZT thin films with PLT buffer layers were observed to be superior to those of PZT thin films using PZT buffer layers. The remanent polarization of PZT thin films showed 36.3 mu C/cm(2) and 2.6 mu C/cm(2) each in the case of use PLT and PZT buffer layers. For the switching polarization endurance analysis, PZT thin films with PLT buffer layers showed more excellent result than that of PZT thin films with PZT buffer layers. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.