Use of a rapid thermal annealing technique is shown to improve the electrical properties of metal‐ferroelectric BaMgF4‐silicon capacitors. The fluoride film was deposited in an ultrahigh vacuum system at a substrate temperature of 300 °C. A postdeposition annealing was conducted for 10 s at 600 °C followed by subsequent annealing for 5 s at 750 °C. The results were found out to increase the resistivity of the ferroelectric BaMgF4film from a typical value of 1–2×1011&OHgr; cm before the annealing to about 5×1013&OHgr; cm at 1 MV/cm and reduce the interface state density of the BaMgF4/Si interface to about 8×1010/cm2 eV. Ferroelectric hysteresis measurements using a Sawyer–Tower circuit yielded remanent polarization and coercive field values of about 0.26 &mgr;C/cm2and 315 kV/cm, respectively. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.