Effect of the (Ba + Sr)/Ti ratio on the microwave‐tunable properties of Ba0.6Sr0.4TiO3 ceramics

The impact of the (Ba + Sr)/Ti (A/B) ratio on the microwave‐tunable characteristics of diffuse phase transition (DPT) ferroelectric Ba0.6Sr0.4TiO3 (0.6‐BST) ceramics was investigated. The reduction in the lattice constant with increasing nonstoichiometry was attributed to introduced partial Schottky defects, i.e., [V″″Ti−2VO∙∙]×and [V″Ba,Sr−VO∙∙]×. The magnitude of the dielectric constant, ε′, at room temperature in the absence of an applied electric field was governed by the shift in the dielectric maximum temperature, Tm, because Tm was close to room temperature for the 0.6‐BST. The dielectric loss, tanδ, diminished as the ε′ decreased for 0.98≤A/B≤1.05, while the tanδ was much higher for A/B=0.95 having the greatest A‐site vacancy loading. The negatively charged V″Ba and V″Sr were mainly compensated by oxygen vacancies and likely partly compensated by holes, h•, which contributed to the electrical conduction. The tunability, T, at 100 MHz was almost constant at 20%–25% for A/B≥1.00 despite the reduction of the ε′, whereas T decreased for A/B