We have carried out dielectric and Raman spectroscopy studies at the 298–623 K temperature range in polycrystalline Pb _0.70 Sr _0.30 TiO ₃ thin films grown by a soft chemical method. The diffuse phase-transition behavior of the thin films was observed by means of the dielectric constant versus temperature curves, which show a broad peak. Such behavior was confirmed later by Raman spectroscopy measurements up to 823 K, indicating that a diffuselike phase transition takes place at around 548–573 K. The damping factor of the E(1TO) soft mode was calculated using the damped simple harmonic oscillator model. On the other hand, Raman modes persist above the tetragonal to cubic phase transition temperature although all optical modes should be Raman inactive. The origin of these modes was interpreted in terms of a breakdown of the microscopic local cubic symmetry by chemical disorder. The lack of a well-defined transition temperature and the presence of broad bands at some temperature interval above the ferroelectric-paraelectric phase-transition temperature suggested a diffuse nature of the phase transition. This result corroborates the dielectric constant versus temperature data, which showed a broad ferroelectric phase transition in this thin film. © 2004 American Institute of Physics.