Over the past years, high-k dielectrics have been incorporated into modern semiconductor devices. One example is ZrO₂, which has been introduced in memory applications. This paper elucidates some difficulties with pure ZrO₂ like unintended crystallization during the growth of the dielectric and the evolution of the monoclinic phase, which reduces the k-value. The admixture of Sr is shown as a solution to circumvent those issues. A detailed structural analysis for a varying stoichiometry ranging from pure ZrO₂ to the perovskite SrZrO₃ is given. The detected crystal structures are correlated to our observations of the dielectric properties obtained by an electrical characterization.