High quality Pb(Zr(0.52)Ti(0.4)8)O-3/SrRuO3 (PZT/SRO) perovskite oxide heterostructures have been grown on polished as-received (001) SrTiO3 substrates without any further treatment by pulsed laser deposition. X-ray diffraction theta-2 theta and omega scans showed that the heterostructures had good (0 0 0 out-of-plane orientation and crystalline quality with the full-width at half-maximum values of rocking curves of only 0.04 degrees and 0.2 degrees for the SRO and PZT films, respectively. Transmission electron microscopy observation confirmed the epitaxial nature of the heterostructures. The SRO films showed a periodic step-terrace topography structure with an atomically flat surface, indicating step-flow growth mode, while the PZT films grew by island growth mechanism. The polarization-electric field hysteresis measurement showed that the remnant polarization P-r and the coercive field E-c at 5V were 42 mu C/cm(2) and 135 kV/cm, respectively. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.