Probing of the physical characteristics of antiferroelectric Pb(Zr0.6Ti0.4)O3; PZT (60/40) ceramics

As the popular candidate of lead-based ferroelectric materials, lead zirconate titanate, PZT (60/40), was developed by a conventional sintering process. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) study at room temperature confirmed a single tetragonal ( P 4mm symmetry) phase. Scanning electron micrograph (SEM) exhibits grains of different shapes and sizes with an average grain size of 0.5 µm. Energy dispersive X-Ray analysis (EDS) shows well-resolved peaks of all constituent elements. Systematic studies on dielectric characteristics of PZT compound show ferroelectric—paraelectric phase transition. The plot of M ″ vs. M ′, PZT (60/40) revealed the contribution of grain effect in the sample. The electrical conductivity analysis suggests the semiconducting-like behavior in the compound. The ac conductivity spectra obeyed Jonscher's universal power law. We observed two different conduction mechanisms with varying activation energies: 0.990 eV and 0.931 eV in high and low-frequency regions. Scaling of modulus and conductivity spectra exhibits dynamical processes in the sample. The polarization vs. electric field obtained from the sample shows double hysteresis and does not saturate for all the measured fields. The compound showed an electro-strain of 0.15% at 40 kV/cm and an antiferroelectric feature with small remnant polarization ( P r ) at 1.23 μC/cm 2 .