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Effect of Nb doping on the microstructure and electrical properties of 0.5BZT–0.5BCT thin films prepared by the sol–gel method

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Abstract

In this study, Nb-doped (0.00 ≤ x ≤ 0.025) lead-free 0.5BZT–0.5BCT films were prepared on Pt/Ti/SiO2/(100)Si substrates by the sol–gel method. The effects of Nb content on the structure, diffusion phase transformation, dielectric and ferroelectric properties of the films were investigated. XRD and Raman spectra indicated the coexistence of T and R phases at room temperature in all the films, and the tetragonality of the films decreased with increasing Nb content. The ferroelectric–paraelectric phase transition temperature decreased, and the diffuseness phase transition gradually increased with increasing Nb content. Low Nb doping caused significant improvement in dielectric and ferroelectric properties at room temperature. Excellent dielectric properties with a large dielectric constant (εr = 3556) and high remanent polarization (Pr of 7.2 μC/cm2) were obtained for the films with x = 0.002. A large improvement in dielectric properties indicates that these films might be a potential material for dielectric applications.

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All data which are analyzed and used to support this study are included in the submitted article.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51772225), Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Provincial (No. 2019JQ-922), Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Provincia Department of Eudcation (No. 19JK0908), and Weinan Normal University Doctoral Research Launch Fund (No. 2020RC06).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Materials, Weinan Normal University, Weinan, 714000, China

    Ling Huang

  2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Ling Huang, Ying Dai, Mengxia Li & Kunxin Liu

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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, analysis, and the first draft of the manuscript were mainly performed by LH and assisted by ML and XL. Funding acquisition, resources, and supervision were performed by YD and LH. The final manuscript was approved by YD; all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ying Dai.

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Huang, L., Dai, Y., Li, M. et al. Effect of Nb doping on the microstructure and electrical properties of 0.5BZT–0.5BCT thin films prepared by the sol–gel method. J Mater Sci 58, 13925–13934 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-023-08553-w

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