Dielectric and Impedance Studies on BiFeO3–BaTiO3 Solid Solutions

Electrical Property Analysis of Textured Ferroelectric Polycrystalline Antimony Sulfoiodide Using Complex Impedance Spectroscopy

Antimony sulfoiodide (SbSI) is a ferroelectric semiconductor with many interesting physical properties (optical, photoconductive, ferroelectric, piezoelectric, etc.). The electrical properties of textured polycrystalline SbSI obtained by the rapid cooling of a melted mass in liquid nitrogen are presented in this work using ac impedance spectroscopy over a wide temperature range (275–500 K) in the frequency range of 1 Hz to 100 kHz. Detailed studies of the impedance Z*(ω), conductivity σ*(ω), electric modulus M*(ω), and dielectric permittivity ε*(ω) of this material were performed using complex impedance spectroscopy for the first time. This study showed that the impedance and related parameters are strongly dependent on temperature. The internal domain structure and the presence of grain boundaries in textured polycrystalline SbSI explain the obtained results.

Metamagnetism stabilized giant magnetoelectric coupling in ferroelectric xBaTiO3-(1 - x)BiCoO3 solid solution

In order to establish the correlation between the magnetoelectric coupling and magnetic instability, we have studied the structural, magnetic, and ferroelectric properties of BaTiO₃ modified BiCoO₃i.e. xBaTiO₃-(1 - x)BiCoO₃ as a function of BaTiO₃ concentration (x) and volume from a series of general-gradient-corrected (GGA), GGA plus onsite Coulomb repulsion (U), full potential, spin-density-functional band-structure calculations within the framework of density functional theory along with synchrotron X-ray diffraction and magnetic measurement studies. G-type antiferromagnetic ordering was found to be energetically favorable among all the considered magnetic configurations for x < 0.45 and higher concentrations stabilize with nonmagnetic (NM) states. We observe metamagnetic spin state transitions associated with paraelectric to ferroelectric transitions as a function of volume and x using synchrotron diffraction and computational studies, indicating a strong magnetoelectric coupling. Specifically for x = 0.33 composition, a pressure induced high spin (HS) to low spin (LS) transition occurs when the volume is compressed below 2.5%. Our orbital-projected density of states show a HS state for Co³⁺ in the ferroelectric ground state for x < 0.45 and the corresponding paraelectric phase is stable in the NM state due to the stabilization of LS state as evident from our fixed-spin-moment calculations and magnetic measurements. The nature of chemical bonding has been studied using partial density of states, electron localization function, and Born effective charge analysis. High values of spontaneous ferroelectric polarizations are predicted for lower x values which inversely vary with x because of the reduction of tetragonality (c/a) with increase in x which indicates the presence of both spin-lattice and ferroelectricity-lattice coupling. Our partial polarization analysis shows that not only the lone pair at Bi sites but also the d⁰-ness of Ti⁴⁺ ions contribute to the net polarization. Moreover, we find that the HS-LS transition point and magnetoelectric coupling strength can be varied by x.

Effects of La concentration on the structural and dielectric properties of 0.57BiFeO3-0.43PbTiO3 crystalline solutions

Crystalline solutions of 0.57(Bi(1-x)La(x))FeO(3)-0.43PbTiO(3) (BLF-PT) for x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3 were fabricated by the traditional solid state reaction method. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that the tetragonal torhombohedral phase transformation of BLF-PT occurred with an increase of the La content. The dielectric and ferroelectric properties of BLF-PT were investigated at room temperature for different La contents. BLF-PT revealed strong ferroelectric characteristics for the lower La composition, and transferred to relaxor ferroelectrics for x 0.2. The dielectric constant and remanent polarization were 1461 and 33.5 microC/cm(2), respectively, for BLF-PT of x = 0.2. The dielectric constant and polarization of BLF-PT were enhanced simultaneously with increasing La content. Our results demonstrate that BLF-PT is a competitive piezoelectric ceramic.