Bismuth as antiferroelectric phase-stabilizer in Pb(ZrSn)TiO3: Designing of a material with large strain and shape memory effect

Abstract

This work highlights antiferroelectric (AFE) phase stabilizing effect of Bi substitution at the A-site in Pb[(Zr0.7Sn0.3)0.938Ti0.062]O3. The composition Pb0.985Bi0.01(Zr0.7Sn0.3)0.938Ti0.062O3 with 1% Bi substitution lies just outside the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) toward the AFE side and allows an electric field driven atomic rearrangement for a disordered state. The disorder and randomness introduced through this substitution is seen to impact the electromechanical property like strain, quite drastically (Smax ∼ 0.3%). Keeping the optimal Bi inclusion and Zr: Sn as 70:30, the B-site of Pb0.985Bi0.01[(Zr0.7Sn0.3)xTi1-x]O3, is varied. The system is brought back to MPB for x = 0.933, and strain values of Smax ∼ 0.44% and a remnant strain Srem ∼ 0.27% are obtained for the optimized MPB composition Pb0.985Bi0.01[(Zr0.7Sn0.3)0.933Ti0.067]O3.