Effects of sintering temperature on the electric properties of Mn-modified BiFeO3-BaTiO3 bulk ceramics

Mn-modified 0.67Bi1.05FeO3-0.33BaTiO3 ceramics were prepared via a solid-state reaction process by using a quenching method after a sintering process at various temperatures. We obtained ceramics with improved electric properties within a narrow sintering temperature range. At the optimized sintering temperature of 990 °C, improved ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties were observed in the 1-mol% Mn-modified ceramic. The small-field and the large-field piezoelectric constants (d33 and d33*) were 135 pC/N and 250 pm/V, respectively, and the leakage current density was about 2.4 × 10−7 A/cm2. The remnant polarization (Pr) and the coercive field (Ec) were 29 μC/cm2 and 28 kV/cm, respectively.