Effect of exceeding the concentration limit of solubility of silver in perovskites on the dielectric and electric properties of half doped lanthanum-calcium manganite

Dielectric and electric properties of La0.5Ca0.2Ag0.3MnO3 (LCMO-Ag) manganite have been investigated using admittance spectroscopy technique. AC conductivity analysis shows that the conductivity verifies the Jonscher universal power law. The deduced exponent 's' values prove that hopping model is the dominating mechanism in the material. From dc-electrical resistivity study, conduction process is found to be dominated by thermally activated small polaron hopping (SPH) mechanism. Complex impedance analysis (CIA) indicates the presence of relaxation phenomenon and allows to modelize the sample in terms of an electrical equivalent circuit. Also, impedance study confirms the contribution of grain boundary in the electrical properties. Dielectric studies indicate that the La0.5Ca0.2Ag0.3MnO3 compound has a Debye-like relaxation. The temperature dependence of permittivity is well fitted by the modified Curie-Weiss law. It is found that dielectric permittivity behavior and the estimated relaxation parameter value (gamma approximate to 2), support the evidence of the relaxer nature of La0.5Ca0.2Ag0.3MnO3 material. The high dielectric constant and the low loss tangent indicate the material is promising for tunable capacitor applications. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.