Epitaxial waveguide structures of c-axis oriented BaTiO 3 thin films on MgO͑001͒ have been grown by pulsed laser deposition. The structural properties of the samples have been characterized by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry/ion channeling ͑RBS/C͒, x-ray diffraction, and atomic force microscopy. We found excellent crystalline quality even up to thicknesses of a few microns. This has been confirmed by RBS/C minimum yield values of 2%-3%, a full width at half maximum of 0.36°of the BaTiO 3

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... ͑002͒ rocking curve, and a rms roughness of 1.1 nm for a 950 nm BaTiO 3 film. The out-of-plane refractive index was measured to be close to the extraordinary bulk value with the birefringence being about one third of the bulk value. Waveguide losses of 2.9 dB/cm have been demonstrated.