Local structure, pseudosymmetry, and phase transitions in Na1/2Bi1/2TiO3-K1/2Bi1/2TiO3 ceramics
- NIST
The structural behavior of ceramic solid solutions (1-x)Na1/2Bi1/2TiO3–xK1/2Bi1/2TiO3 (NBT-KBT) was studied using high-resolution powder diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. A temperature-independent morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) separating NBT-like pseudorhombohedral (R) and KBT-like pseudotetragonal (T) phases was observed at x ≈ 0.2. For x<0.2, both local and average room-temperature structures are similar to those in NBT. Simultaneous long-range antiphase and short-range in-phase octahedral rotations average, resulting in effective antiphase a-a-c- tilting, which yields monoclinic symmetry when probed by x-ray diffraction (XRD). For these compositions, polar ordering is coupled to antiphase octahedral rotations so that tilting and ferroelectric (FE) domains coincide. Compositions with x>0.2 exhibit a tetragonal-like distortion; however, complex splitting of reflections in XRD patterns suggests that the actual symmetry is lower than tetragonal. For 0.2≤x≤0.5, in-phase octahedral tilting a0b+a0 (or a+b0b0) is present but confined to the nanoscale, while for x>0.5 the structure becomes untilted. In-phase tilting evolves above the ferroelectric transition and occurs around a nonpolar (a or b) axis of the average T structure. The onset of polar order has no significant effect on the coherence length of in-phase tilting, which suggests only weak coupling between the two phenomena. The average symmetry of the T phase is determined by the effective symmetry (Imm2) of assemblages of coherent in-phase tilted nanodomains. Near the MPB, the coexistence of extended R- and T-like regions is observed, but lattice distortions within each phase are small, yielding narrow peaks with a pseudocubic appearance in XRD. The temperature of the FE phase transition exhibits a minimum at the MPB. The structured diffuse scattering observed in electron diffraction patterns for all the compositions suggests that polar order in NBT-KBT solid solutions is modulated away from the average displacements refined using powder diffraction data.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- FOREIGNNSFU.S. ARMY RESEARCH
- OSTI ID:
- 1063641
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review B, Vol. 87, Issue 2; ISSN 2469-9950
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- ENGLISH
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