Structural Phase Transitions of PbZr_0.52Ti_0.48O₃ Ceramic: An Infrared Spectroscopy Study

The recent discovery of a ferroelectric monoclinic phase in the PbZr_1−xTi_xO₃ (PZT) system attained the attention of several researchers due to the possibility of understanding the relationships between structural features and piezoelectric properties. The nature of the monoclinic phase in some PZT compositions remains controversial and unclear. In this work, structural phase transitions of PbZr_0.52Ti_0.48O₃ ceramic were investigated by infrared spectroscopy as a function of temperature. Studies were centered on ν₁-stretching modes and corresponding half width Wi as a function of temperature. The occurrence of the anomalies in the infrared spectra as a function of temperature suggests the following monoclinic (LT) → monoclinic (HT) → tetragonal phase transition were observed at 183 K and at 263 K.

Keywords:

• PZT
• phase transitions
• infrared spectroscopy

Acknowledgments

We would like express our gratitude to Brazilian funding agencies Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), to Fundação para o Desenvolvimento da Unesp (FUNDUNESP) and to Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) for financial support.

Paper originally presented at IMF-11, Iguassu Falls, Brazil, September 5–9, 2005