Relaxor characteristics of highly tunable lead-free 0.5Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3-0.5(Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3 thin film grown on LaNiO3/Si by pulsed laser deposition

We report a comprehensive study on relaxor-like characteristics exhibited by (l00) oriented 0.5Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O-3-0.5(Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3 thin film grown on LaNiO3 coated Si substrate by pulsed laser deposition. The diffuseness coefficient value close to 2 and excellent fit of Vogel-Fulcher curve to the experimental data, suggest its relaxor characteristics. The 'butterfly' shaped dc field dependence of permittivity and evolution of P-E hysteresis loop, at different temperatures, clearly indicate the occurrence of polar nanoregions in this material. The high tunability n(r) similar to 70 and low temperature coefficient TCC = 5.18 x 10(-4) K-1 show that the BCZT50 ceramics could be a promising candidate for tunable capacitor applications. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.