Local Distortions in Nanostructured Ferroelectric Ceramics through Strain Tuning

Gilles Philippot (1) , Marjorie Albino (1) , Romain Epherre (2) , Geoffroy Chevallier (2) , Yannick Beynet (2) , Charles Manière (2) , Alicia Weibel (2) , Alain Peigney (2) , Marco Deluca (3, 4) , Catherine Elissalde (1) , Mario Maglione (1) , Cyril Aymonier (1) , Claude Estournès (2)

1 ICMCB - Institut de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Bordeaux
2 CIRIMAT - Centre interuniversitaire de recherche et d'ingenierie des matériaux
3 Materials Center Leoben Forschung
4 Institut für Struktur- und Funktionskeramik

Ferroelectric materials are highly sensitive to grain size reduction because strain and ferroelectric polarization have a direct connection. Using 15 nm (Ba,Sr)TiO3 particles obtained by advanced supercritical synthesis and their densification by high-pressure spark plasma sintering under air, reproducible and dense nanostructured ceramics are achieved. Taking advantage of the high pressure (up to 600 MPa) applied during the sintering step, the internal stress generated at the grain scale can be monitored to compensate for the particle surface stress due to size effect. Both the local dynamics observed by Raman scattering and the overall dielectric behavior consistently indicate a recovery of the ferroelectric properties as the sintering pressure is increased. This unique behavior shows that low-temperature and high-pressure processing enables designing nanostructured functional ceramics exhibiting original properties.

Mots clés: dielectrics; nanostructures; structure–property relationships; ceramics

Domaines: Matériaux; Chimie-Physique [physics.chem-ph]

Gilles Philippot, Marjorie Albino, Romain Epherre, Geoffroy Chevallier, Yannick Beynet, et al.. Local Distortions in Nanostructured Ferroelectric Ceramics through Strain Tuning. Advanced Electronic Materials, 2015, 1 (10), 1500190 (8 p.). ⟨10.1002/aelm.201500190⟩. ⟨hal-01222865⟩