Electrical and Ferroelectric Properties of Undoped and Er-Doped PZT52/48 Electroceramics Synthesized by a Polymeric Precursor Method

The effect of Er on the structural and electrical properties of doped PZT 52/48 ceramics has been studied in this work. The ferroelectric properties (permittivity, ferro-paraelectric phase transition and hysteresis) of such materials are thus found to be strongly dependent on the degree of densification and structural phase development during sintering at high temperatures. In particular, the nature of the ferroelectric to paraelectric phase transition is in these materials that can be represented through the Curie-Weiss Law equation modified, appropriate for the characterization diffuse transitions. The substitution of Er³⁺ for (Zr,Ti)⁴⁺ is found to induce strong diffuse phase transition in these materials. The electrical properties reported in this work are in magnitude comparable to those exhibited by PZT52/48 materials.

Keywords
: PZT-based; electrical properties; ferroelectric; dielectric properties