Extrinsic effects on dielectric response of ultrafine grain BaTiO3 ceramics

The complex dielectric response of ultrafine grain barium titanate ceramics is investigated using broadband dielectric spectrometer. Extrinsic effects like conduction, space charge associating with grain boundaries are discussed. One dielectric relaxation ascribes to the interaction of defects with grain boundaries, for which the activation energy fitted by Arrhenius equation is equivalent to 0.26 eV and the value shifts to 0.41 eV after annealing treatment. Another relaxation phenomenon locating at elevated temperature can be attributed to interfacial polarization due to space charge accumulation effect. The study of complex impedance spectra suggests that grain boundary effects support extrinsic mechanism. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3505924]