Structural and dielectric properties of sol–gel processed Ce-doped BaTi0.97Y0.03O3 ceramics

Abstract

Structural and dielectric properties of Ce-doped [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]O3 powders, with the chemical formulation (Ba[Formula: see text][Formula: see text](Ti([Formula: see text]- [Formula: see text]O3 such as [Formula: see text] = 0%, 1%, 3%, 5%, 7% and 9%, produced by the sol–gel method, have been investigated. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that Ce[Formula: see text] ions incorporated Ba sites until [Formula: see text]= 7% indicating that this concentration represents a solubility limit of Ce[Formula: see text] ions in [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]O3 matrix. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis showed a decrease in grain size down to the same concentration of 7%. Raman spectroscopy analysis showed the appearance of [Formula: see text] mode, which we attributed to the effect of incorporation of Ce[Formula: see text] and Y[Formula: see text] in BaTiO3 matrix. Dielectric measurements revealed that doping with cerium lowers the temperature of permittivity maximum at the ferroelectric-to-paraelectric transition (FPT) of the [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]O3 sample, and reaches a value that should be below [Formula: see text]C for [Formula: see text]= 9%. Moreover, the phenomenon of dielectric resonance was observed on all Ce-doped samples, which was not the case with other dopants as reported in the literature.