Effect of mono-dopants (Mg2+) and co-dopants (Mg2+, Zr4+) on the dielectric, ferroelectric and optical properties of BaTiO(3)ceramics

In this work, BaTiO3, Ba(Mg0.01Ti0.99)O-3, Ba(Mg0.015Ti0.985)O-3, Ba(Mg0.02Ti0.98)O(3)and Ba(Mg0.01Zr0.15Ti0.84)O(3)ceramics have been prepared through conventional solid-state route to investigate the effects of Mg(2+)and Zr(4+)dopants as mono-substitution (only Mg2+) and co-substitution (Mg(2+)and Zr4+) of B-site on the structural, electrical and optical properties of BaTiO(3)ceramics. Exhibiting perovskite structure, Ba(Mg(x)Ti(1-x))O(3)ceramics revealed a decrement pattern of tetragonality with the increment of the concentration of MgO which was confirmed through Rietveld analysis. Morphological analysis of the sintered samples by scanning electron microscope showed a grain growth retardation phenomenon with Mg(2+)addition. Releasing from this retardation process, Ba(Mg0.01Zr0.15Ti0.84)O(3)showed a maximum dielectric constant of similar to 1269.94 due to the enhanced domain wall motion and the confinement within the solubility limit of Mg2+. The ferroelectric characteristic of Ba(Mg(x)Ti(1-x))O(3)was sluggish due to the effects of grain size and its boundary. The optical band gap for BaTiO(3)was found to be decreased from 3.55 eV to 3.06 eV with the addition Mg(2+)content but for Ba(Mg0.01Zr0.15Ti0.84)O-3, the value increased due to the Burstein-Moss effect. Again the FTIR analysis proved that no impurity phases were formed during the doping phenomenon, but in Ba(Mg(x)Ti(1-x))O(3)ceramics, a significant reduction of Ti-O bond strength was observed. However, BaTiO3, Ba(Mg0.01Ti0.99)O-3, Ba(Mg0.015Ti0.985)O(3)and Ba(Mg0.02Ti0.98)O(3)ceramics had manifested P-E loop having lower remanent polarization and coercive field compared to Ba(Mg0.01Zr0.15Ti0.84)O(3)ceramics with moderate electrical and optical properties. So, co-doping with Mg(2+)and Zr(4+)evidenced a favorable accession for the increment of the properties of BaTiO(3)ceramics.