Effect of bismuth substitution on piezoelectric coefficients and temperature and pressure-dependent dielectric and impedance properties of lead zirconate titanate ceramics

Basic Physics as well as devices fabrication required in-depth analysis of the effect of temperature, pressure, and other physical parameters on dielectric properties to understand the microstructure-property relation. In this regard, we have thoroughly investigated the temperature and pressure dependent ferroelectric, dielectric, and impedance properties of Bi-substituted Pb1-xBi2x/3(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 (PBiZT) (x = 0.10 to 0.40) ceramics. The maximum solubility of Bi was found near x = 0.15, and above this composition, it shows a composite phase of PBiZT and ZrO2. The remanent polarization (Pr) increases with decrease in the Bi concentration with the maximum value obtained for x = 0.15, i.e., 40 μC/cm2. Temperature-dependent dielectric constant and tangent loss were measured as function of composition to check the ferroelectric phase transition temperature (Tc) and the operating temperature limit for the material to make a device. The Tc value increases with decrease in bismuth (Bi) concentration which obtained in the range of 350 ℃ - 375 ℃. The tangent loss was observed to be near about 0.01 to 0.03 below 200 ℃ which suggests its suitability for device applications. The temperature-dependent imaginary part of impedance ( Z ' ' ) was measured at various temperatures with varying frequency in the range of 100 Hz – 1 MHz. The peaks positions of the Z ' ' vs. frequency shift towards lower temperature side with increasing the value of x from 0.1 to 0.4 near and above Tc. The pressure-dependent dielectric constant ( e r ) and capacitive reactance ( X c ) were also measured for varying x, and it was observed that maximum change in e r and X c was observed for x = 0.15 i.e. 13% and 10.5%, respectively. The pressure sensitivity was obtained maximum for the composition near the maximum solubility of Bi in PbZr1-xTixO3 (PZT) matrix. The reason behind getting the highest remanent polarization and pressure sensitivity for x = 0.15 is that of the highest piezoelectric coefficients ∼ 130 pC/N.