In the present study, lead-free (1-x)Bi 0.5 (Na 0.8 K 0.2 ) 0.5 TiO 3 -xBiMnO 3 (abbreviated as BNKT-xBMO, with x ranged from 0 to 0.025) thin films were deposited on Pt/Ti/SiO 2 /Si substrates by sol-gel method, and the effects of BiMnO 3 addition on their crystal structure and electrical properties were systematically investigated. The results show that with increasing BiMnO 3 content the crystal structure undergoes the phase transition from a ferroelectric rhombohedral phase to rhombohedral-tetragonal coexisted phases to a relaxor pseudocubic phase.The superior ferroelectric, piezoelectric and dielectric properties were attained at x = 0.01 with remanent polarization 2P r ~14 µC/cm 2 , effective piezoelectric coefficient d 33 * ~116 pm/V and dielectric constant ε r ~270.The composition-dependent phase structure and optimal electrical properties indicated that the MPB-like behavior existed at around x = 0.01. Moreover, our study revealed that the end-member BiMnO 3 modified BNKT thin films provided a lead-free alternative in ferroelectric 2 random access memory (FRAM) and piezoelectric actuators application.3 for environmentally friendly devices, more and more attention has been paid to the investigation of lead-free composition systems. Currently, extensive studies are focused on (Bi 0.5 Na 0.5 )TiO 3 (BNT) and (K 0.5 Na 0.5 )NbO 3 (KNN) system because of their relatively high piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties. [8][9][10][11][12] For (Bi 0.5 Na 0.5 )TiO 3 , it has been expected to be a superior lead-free candidate material because of its good ferroelectricity and relatively high Curie temperature (T c ~320 o C). 13However, BNT ceramics and thin films have two major drawbacks: (ⅰ) a quite high coercive field, (ⅱ) high conductivity. 14 Compared with pure BNT, many researchers found that BNT-xBKT binary system showed the improved piezoelectric and dielectric properties due to the existent rhombohedral-tetragonal morphotropic phase boundary (MPB). [15][16][17][18][19][20] Whereas, the investigation of MPB is mainly focused on ceramics, due to the fine grain size and stress in thin films resulting in the MPB is difficult to be obtained.Up to now, some researches have confirmed that the hybridization between the Pb 6p and O 2p orbits was responsible for the high piezoelectric response in Pb-based piezoelectric materials. Considering the same electron configuration between Bi 3+ and Pb 2+ and bismuth-based perovskite system generally shows high piezoelectric and ferroelectricproperties, therefore, more and more attention has been paid to BiMeO 3 -modified (where Me = Al, Sc, Mn, Fe, etc.) BNT and 7 2θ around 47°, corresponding to a rhombohedral phase. 16,29 When x = 0.005, the (200) peak shows no apparent splitting, but some degree of broadening peak with left side bulged indicate the phase structure may be change from this composition. However, at x = 0.01 and 0.015, the {200} reflection peak shows significant difference from other compositions,suggesting that there may be two phases in the films. According...