Thermally-induced phase transformations in Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3-KNbO3 ceramics

The structures and functional properties of Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3-xKNbO3 (NBT-KN) solid solutions, with x in the range from 0.01 to 0.09, were investigated using a combination of high-resolution synchrotron x-ray powder diffraction (SXPD) and ferroelectric property measurements. For low KN contents, an irreversible transformation from cubic to rhombohedral phases was observed after the application of a high electric field, indicating that the polar nanoregions (PNRs) in the unpoled state can be transformed into metastable long-range ordered ferroelectric domains in the poled state. In contrast, the near-cubic phase of the unpoled ceramics was found to be remarkably stable and was retained on cooling to a temperature of -175 °C. Upon heating, the field-induced metastable ferroelectric rhombohedral phase transformed back to the nanopolar cubic state at the structural transformation temperature, TST, which was determined as approximately 225 °C and 125 °C for KN contents of 3% and 5% respectively. For the field-induced rhombohedral phase in the poled specimens, the pseudo-cubic lattice parameter, ap, exhibited an anomalous reduction while the inter-axial angle increased towards a value of 90° on heating, resulting in an overall increase in volume. The observed structural changes were correlated with the results of temperature-dependent dielectric, ferroelectric and depolarisation measurements, enabling the construction of a phase diagram to define the stable regions of the different ferroelectric phases as a function of composition and temperature.