Structural and electrical impedance study of Pb(Sr1/3Nb2/3)O3

Lead-based ceramic Pb(Sr1/3Nb2/3)O-3 (PSN) is prepared by the columbite precursor method and structurally characterized using XRD. The X-ray diffraction shows a perovskite structure with cubic pyrochlore phase. Detailed studies of epsilon' and epsilon" of the compounds show that the compounds exhibit dielectric anomaly. Impedance spectroscopy is used to characterize the electrical behaviour. Results indicate that the relaxation mechanism of the material is temperature dependent and has dominant bulk contribution in different temperature ranges. Modulus spectroscopic data were used to gain an insight into the electrical properties of the samples and with a view to observe the relaxations in them. Frequency dependence dielectric permittivity shows typical Debye-type dielectric dispersion, Temperature-dependen DC resistivity shows that resistance decreases with the increase in temperature and follows Arrhenius behaviour in different temperature regions. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.