Effect of Ba Substitution on Microstructure, Dielectric and Ferroelectric Properties of BiFeO₃ Ceramics

Abstract

Pure BiFeO₃ (BFO) ceramics and Bi_1-xBa_xFeO₃ (x=0.1, 0.15, 0.2, and 0.25) ceramics were prepared by sol-gel method. A structural transition from rhombohedral R3c to triangle R3m occurs in the Ba doped BFO ceramics. The Ba doped BFO ceramics exhibit larger dielectric constant, smaller dielectric loss, and better ferroelectric hysteresis loop, which could be attributed to the lower concentration of charge defects and the structural transition.

Keywords:

• Ceramic
• sol-gel growth
• crystal structure
• dielectric properties
• ferroelectricity

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51102288, 51372283), the Science and Technology Research Project of Chongqing Education Committee of Chongqing (KJ131402), the Natural Science Foundation of Chongqing, China (CSCT2012jjA50017), the Research Foundation of Chongqing University of Science and Technology (CK2013B08, CK2013Z13).