Piezoelectric properties of cerium-doped bismuth barium titanate intergrowth ceramics
Structure and electrical properties of cerium doped bismuth barium titanate Ba1-xCexBi8Ti7O27 (x = 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0,2 and 0.3) ceramics were investigated. X-ray diffraction revealed that the ceramic samples are of single stable phase. The ceramics possess typical plate-like structure with obvious decrease in the grain size with increasing Ce-doping amount. The dielectric properties of the materials show relaxor behaviour. Furthermore, the total resistance increase was observed with Ce-doping and the doped samples show good insulation properties. The Ba0.9Ce0.1Bi8Ti7O27 ceramics has the best piezoelectric performance (d33 = 20.6 pC/N) in contrast to that of the undoped BaBi8Ti7O27 ceramics (d33 = 6.7 pC/N), which is substantially enhanced piezoelectric performance of the material by more than three times.