Classification of transition temperature behavior in ferroelectric PbTiO3–Bi(Me′Me″)O3 solid solutions

Abstract

The ferroelectric transition temperature (Tc) behavior of perovskite solid solutions based on PbTiO3–Bi(Me′Me″)O3 (Me′=Fe3+, Zn2+, Sc3+, In3+, Mg2+, Ni2+, etc., and Me″=Ti4+, Nb5+, W6+) was considered. Trends in the Tc compositional dependence near the PbTiO3 end member could be described with a geometrical polynomial expression. Three main cases were observed: Case 1, a continued increase in transition temperature above the end member PbTiO3 (495°C); case 2, an increase and then decrease of the transition temperature; and case 3, a continuous decrease in the transition temperature with Bi(Me′Me″)O3 additions. It was noted that for all case 2 examples the enhancement of ΔTc=Tc(max)−Tc(PT) increased as the distribution of B-site ionic radii increased. A correlation was therefore proposed between the maximum enhancement in transition temperature and the spread of tolerance factor (Δt) and∕or variance in B-site ionic radius (σ2). Finally, it was proposed that these observations are consistent with random-field effects created by local strain-field fluctuations within the perovskite lattice.