This work investigates local atomic and electronic structures of PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3 (PZT) thin films with ＜001＞, ＜101＞, and ＜111＞ orientations using extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) and x-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy with θ = 0° and 70° incident angles. The EXAFS result indicates that the ＜001＞-oriented PZT film has a polarization dominantly along the c-axis, while both ＜101＞- and ＜111＞-oriented PZT films have a dominant in-ab-plane polarization. The hysteresis-loop measurements show that the ＜001＞-oriented PZT film has a much larger coercive field than those of other two PZT films, which indicates that the double-well potential along the c-axis is much deeper than that in the ab-plane.
