Enhanced piezoelectricity properties and relaxor behaviour in (Ce, Y) co-doped BCTZ thin films libraries
Résumé
Background, Motivation and Objective
Lead containing high performance PZT piezoelectric ceramics used in ultrasound transducers will soon be banned according to the European RoHS directive. Alternative lead-free material should have the highest possible coupling factors (kij, kt, kp) and Curie temperature (TC). ABO3-type perovskite oxides exhibit a wide range of physical properties defined by the fine balance of competing interactions and are stable against a large number of substitutions. BT-type titanates are already commercially exploited as good alternatives to PZT. The compound 0.5BaZr0.15Ti0.85-0.5Ba0.7Ca0.3TiO3 (50BCTZ with TC = 90°C, d33 ~ 490 pC/N comparable to soft PZT) was thus used to produce the first lead-free ultrasound probe. Substitution on A or B site at low concentrations influences significantly the piezoelectric properties and the TC.
Statement of Contribution/Methods
The extreme sensitivity of the properties to cationic content requires multi-doping fine screening that we achieve via high throughput synthesis and characterisations. A systematic and statistical exploration of (Ce,Y) co-doped 50BCTZ phase diagrams is done in thin films libraries. A range of structural, chemical and physical local characterisations (-XRD, WDS, STEM, DBLI, P(E) and IS vs T with Rayleigh analysis) to relate composition, microstructure and physical properties.
Results/Discussion
Co-doped (Ce,Y)-50BCTZ libraries are currently investigated and will be discussed. Focusing on Ce, we showed that going from 0% to 0.2% in doping modifies the lattice parameter, reduces the remnant polarisation, and shifts the maximum permittivity temperature (Tmax) value. For compositions with Tmax close to room temperature, we measured a 25% enhancement of room-temperature d33 piezoelectric coefficient. We then use dielectric spectroscopy coupled with the Rayleigh analysis to identify the contribution of domain wall motion to the ferroelectric response of the films, as a function of temperature. We observed residual ferroelectricity above Tmax, similar to what has been observed for (Ba,Sr)TiO3. In addition, measurement of the third harmonic dielectric response revealed the evolution from a conventional ferroelectric character to a relaxor one with increasing temperature. A peculiar phase angle of the third harmonic, which consists of −180◦ → −225◦ → +45◦ → 0◦, instead of the −180◦ → −90◦ → 0◦ found for relaxors, was also observed in several samples and tentatively attributed to changes in the correlations between polar nanoregions.