Study of dielectric, impedance and transport properties of co-doped Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 ceramics

Abstract

Dielectric properties and Electrical response of BST ceramics having composition Ba0.5Sr0.5Ti0.98Sn0.01Zr0.01O3 synthesized by solid state reaction route are studied in this piece of work. The structural part analysis is done using XRD technique and scanning electron microscopy and is confirmed to be of cubic structure. Electrical characterization through impedance and modulus spectroscopy is made over a frequency region of 1 kHz to 1 MHz from ambient temperature to 400 °C. Near constant value of Ɛr and significantly low and flat loss tangent at room temperature are achieved in the material which suggest possible application in electronic circuits. Temperature dependent broadened loss peaks observed beyond 250 °C indicated thermally activated conductivity/ relaxation process in the material. Impedance spectroscopy results were examined in alternate formalism for the role of grain boundary and grain in various processes. The computed activation energy for charge carriers provides information of the transport phenomena. The estimated values suggest that oxygen vacancies play important role in conduction process. The activation energy is estimated by fitting temperature dependent relaxation time with Arrhenius equation and the type of charge carriers involved in the relaxation process are suggested. Frequency dependent ac conductivity plots at various temperatures obey Johnscher’s law. Variation of exponent in Johnsher’s power law with temperature well agrees with correlated barrier hopping (CBH) model for ac conduction mechanism.