Effects of substitutions of Nd3+ for Sr2+ on the properties of SrBi2Nb2O9 ceramics and their mechanism

(Sr(1-3x/2)A(x/2)Nd(x))Bi2Nb2O9 (x = 0, 0.05, 0.1 and 0.2) ceramics are prepared by traditional solid-reaction method, and effects of substitutions of Nd3+ for Sr2+ on the properties of SrBi2Nb2O9 ceramics and their mechanism are investigated. The results show that the temperature spectra of dielectric constant and loss for these Nd-doped samples are obviously characteristic of ion relaxor polarization. The partial substitution of Nd3+ for Sr2+ leads to the slight reduction in remanent polarization (P-r) and the increase in piezoelectric coefficient d(33), Which can be attributed to the increase in dielectric constant of samples according to ferroelectric thermodynamics theory. Raman spectrum shows that no change in the Curie temperature (T-C) of (Sr(1-3x/2)A(x/2)Nd(x)) Bi2Nb2O9 samples is observed, which might result from no appreciable variation in NbO6 octahedron distortion. For (Sr(1-3x/2)A(x/2)Nd(x)) Bi2Nb2O9 ceramics, the substitution of Nd3+ for S2+ increases permittivity epsilon(r), piezoelectric coefficient d(33), and electromechanical coupling coefficient K-P and reduces mechanical quality factor Q(m), but it does not change temperature coefficient of harmonic frequency value.