Characterization of A-site deficient samarium doped barium titanate

Ba1-xSm2x/3TiO3 (0.00 <= x <= 0.10, in a step of 0.02) ceramics have been prepared through solid state reaction route. Structural studies (XRD, FTIR, Raman) suggested a tetragonal symmetry of all the prepared ceramics and a decrease in tetragonality with increase in Sm content. Rietveld refinement technique has been employed to investigate the details of crystal structure and was found to be tetragonal at room temperature with space group P4mm. Photoluminescence study confirmed formation of shallow defects. The prepared materials are found to show photoemission in the violet, blue and green zone. Optical band gap values calculated from UV-visual diffuse reflectance spectra showed a decreasing trend in band gap values with increase in samarium concentration. Disk shaped pellets were prepared using PVA as binder. Scanning electron microscopy showed a drastic decrease in grain size on doping than undoped barium titanate. A regular increase in the grain size with increase in Sm content in the doped compositions is observed. Dielectric studies were performed over a wide temperature range from 15 K to 600 K at different frequencies. Normal ferroelectric character was obtained for all the compositions. A gradual decrease in the Curie temperature was noticed with increase in samarium content. P similar to E hysteresis loops showed a domain pinning effect which increased successively resulting in a decrease in the values of remnant polarization and coercive fields. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.