Simultaneous Observation of Nanocrystalline BaTiO3 Ceramics Surface Morphology and Ferroelectricity Using Scanning Nonlinear Dielectric Microscopy

A scanning nonlinear dielectric microscopy (SNDM) with an additional electrically conducting atomic force microscope cantilever as a probe needle is adopted to simultaneously observe the surface topographic and domain images of nanocrystalline BaTiO3 ceramics with super-high resolution. The sample exhibits a uniform grain size distribution and the average grain sizes are calculated to be about 30 nm. Some regions are brighter than the others in SNDM image, indicating the existence of ferroelectric domains structure. In addition, P-E hysteresis and piezoresponse loops are found in nanocrystalline BaTiO3 ceramics. The experimental results demonstrate that the SNDM with the function of atomic force microscopy is very useful for understanding domain structures of nanocrystalline ferroelectric materials.

Processing, Microstructure and Properties of Nanograin Barium Titanate Ceramics by Spark Plasma Sintering

Bulk dense nanocrystalline BaTiO3 ceramics ranging from 15 nm to 100 nm have been successfully prepared by the spark plasma sintering method. Raman spectra and X-ray diffraction were used in combination with electron microscopy to study the evolution of lattice structure and phase transformation behavior with grain growth from nanoscale to micrometre scale for BaTiO3 ceramics. Scanning nonlinear dielectric microscopy measurements revealed temperature-dependent variations in contrast, which were attributed to domain rearrangements in BaTiO3 ceramics below 100 nm. Furthermore the piezoresponse hysteresis loops showed that the nanocrystalline BaTiO3 ceramics were switchable and ferroelectricity was retained at the high temperature of 290 oC, demonstrating the existence of nano ferroelectric domains and the ferroelectric phase still retained above Curie temperature, which confirmed the diffused phase transition character in nanograin BaTiO3 ceramics. The dielectric data also show a ferroelectric to paraelectric phase transition in nanograin BaTiO3 ceramics.

First Principle Study on Electronic Structure of Nanocrystalline BaTiO3 Ceramics

The full potential linearized augmented plane wave method within the generalized gradient approximation was used to calculate electronic structure of nanocrystalline BaTiO3 ceramics. We calculated the total and partial density of states of 50 nm BaTiO3 ceramics. The results show that the atoms distribution of nanograin BaTiO3 ceramics is different from those of coarse BaTiO3 ceramics. It is also revealed that the hybridization between Ti 3d and O 2p is very strong, which is very important to the ferroelectric stability of nanocrystalline BaTiO3 ceramics.