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Abstract
Structural and microstructural properties of lead-free BaBa1−xGdxTiO3 ceramics are investigated. The results confirm the formation of the ferroelectric phase, for all the cases, revealing a decrease in the unit-cell volume (V) with the increase of the gadolinium concentration, which can be associated to the difference between the ionic-radii of the involved ions (Gd3+ and Ba2+). A decrease in the average grain-size, with the increase of the Gd3+ content, was associated to the pinning effect (typical of rare-earths) due to the contribution of minor additional phase, which is not easily detectable by X-ray diffraction technique at very low dopant concentrations.
Additional information
Funding
The authors would like to thank CNPq, CAPES, FAPEMIG and FAPESP Brazilian agencies for the financial support. MSc. Mendez-GonzÄlez acknowledges the partial financial support by the ICTP-CLAF agreement AF-13. Dr. M. A. Oliveira also thanks the Materials Science Graduate Program (PPGCM), UNESP, Ilha Solteira, Brazil for the financial support.