Effect of neodymium doping in BaTiO3 ceramics on structural and ferroelectric properties

In this work, single-phase perovskite Ba1-xNdxTiO3 (x = 0.00, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08) ceramic solid solutions were synthesized via solid-state sintering process. Powder X-ray diffraction and Rietveld profile refinement revealed the phase transition behavior from tetragonal (x >= 0.04) to cubic (x <= 0.06). The charge densities between atoms were also investigated by refined PXRD results. Raman spectra revealed that the intensity was noticed with the increase of Nd3+ concentration in BaTiO3 suggesting a structural transformation. The E-gap value decreased with the increase of Nd3+ doping estimated by UV-visible spectra. The SEM images show the grains with fractured morphology. Ferroelectric studies show that the maximum polarization (P-m) and remnant polarization (P-r) gradually decreases after the composition x = 0.04, confirming the transformation from tetragonal to cubic system.