Structure, dielectric and ferroelectric properties of lead-free (Ba,Ca)(Ti,Zr)O3-xBiErO3 piezoelectric ceramics

Lead-free piezoelectric ceramics [(Ba0.85Ca0.15)(Ti0.90Zr0.10)O3-xBiErO3 (BCTZ-xBE)] doped with a new doping material BiErO3 (BE) has been synthesized successfully via solid state reaction technique, and their structural, dielectric, ferroelectric, and piezoelectric properties have been investigated. A high dielectric constant with very low dielectric loss and high remnant polarization followed by a low coercive field has been obtained with the addition of x = 0.5 BE. Bulk ferroelectric hysteresis loops were obtained with a maximum polarization Pmax = 26.7 μC/cm2 and a saturation polarization Ps = 16.65 μC/cm2 along with a coercive field of Ec ≈ 2.45 kV/cm. Results demonstrate an induced-strain increasing from ~ 0.11 to ~ 0.24 for x = 0.5, excellent piezoelectricity with d33 = 560 pC/N, kp = 56%, Qm = 196, εm = 11,200 and tanδ = 0.01.