Observation of multiple dielectric relaxations in BaTiO3-Bi(Li1/3Ti2/3)O3 ceramics

Dense (1-x)BaTiO3-xBi(Li1/3Ti2/3)O3 ceramics were fabricated by the solid state reaction route. Powder X-ray diffraction analysis analyses revealed an increase in the unit cell volume with increasing x and a change on the average crystal structure from tetragonal (space group P4mm) to cubic (Pm3 ̅mPm-3m) at x> 0.10. Raman spectroscopy analyses corroborated a change of symmetry, but also showed the local structure for x> 0.10 to be inconsistent with the centrosymmetric (Pm3 ̅m) space group Pm-3m. The dielectric measurements revealed for the first time, to our knowledge, a double relaxor behaviour in a BaTiO3-based solid solution. Basically, with increasing x, the sharp ferroelectric anomaly at the Curie temperature (Tc) shifts towards lower temperatures until a relaxor-type response is observed, but simultaneously, another relaxation emerges above Tc. The first arises from poor coupling between polar nanoregions, whereas the later obeys the Arrhenius Law and may be associated either with a defect-dipole reorientation or a Skanavi-type mechanism.