Enhanced dielectric and piezoelectric properties in microwave sintered (Ba0.997Nd0.003)TiO3 ceramic when compared to conventional sintered ceramics

Dielectric, conductivity and piezoelectric properties have been studied on (Ba0.997Nd0.003) TiO3 ceramic samples prepared through microwave sintered (MWS) and conventional sintered (CS) routes and the results are presented in this paper. The room temperature dielectric constant at 10 kHz for CS andMWS samples are 1245 and 5250 respectively. Room temperature dielectric constant in MWS sample was almost four times higher than that of the CS sample. The value of Kt is found to be 0.998 and 0.997; whereas the value of d33 is 7.72 nm V -1 (573 K) and 444.66 nm V -1 (573 K) for CS and MWS samples, respectively. In the present study almost 57 times enhancement in piezoelectric charge constant (d33) is observed for the MWS Ba0.997Nd0.003TiO3 ceramic when compared to the CS ceramic.