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This study examines the effects of bottom electrodes for metal ferroelectric metal (MFM) capacitor applications. We investigated the following parameters of bottom electrodes and Pb(Zr0.53Ti0.47)O3 (PZT) thin films: substrate temperature, rf power, gas flow rate, Ar/O2 ratio, electrode material, and post-annealing effect. Bottom electrodes grown at 300°C for Pt and 200°C for RuO2 exhibited a film resistivity of 10-4 Ω·cm, had a surface roughness of approximately 55 Å and a preferred crystal orientation. Rapid thermal annealing (RTA) treatments on a Pt electrode at 600°C for 30 s improved the resistivity to 5×10-6 Ω·cm and generated the (111) preferred crystal orientation. PZT films exhibited a strong PZT (101) peak for an optimized Pt bottom electrode and (111), (200), (112) planes without preferred PZT orientations for the RuO2 electrode. A well-fabricated Pd/PZT/Pt capacitor showed a leakage current density in the order of 6×10-5 A/cm2, a dielectric constant (ε r) of 365, a remanent polarization (P r) of 27 µC/cm2, and a coercive field (E c) of 50.5 kV/cm. This paper discusses the bottom electrode properties as well as their recommended conditions in memory device applications of thin-film PZT capacitors.