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Domain morphology of newly designed lead‐free antiferroelectric NaNbO 3 ‐SrSnO 3 ceramics
Author(s) -
Ding Hui,
Zhang MaoHua,
Koruza Jurij,
MolinaLuna Leopoldo,
Kleebe HansJoachim
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of the american ceramic society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.9
H-Index - 196
eISSN - 1551-2916
pISSN - 0002-7820
DOI - 10.1111/jace.17738
Subject(s) - antiferroelectricity , superlattice , materials science , ferroelectricity , crystallography , electron diffraction , selected area diffraction , transmission electron microscopy , diffraction , condensed matter physics , hysteresis , ceramic , optics , dielectric , chemistry , nanotechnology , physics , optoelectronics , composite material
Reversible antiferroelectric‐ferroelectric phase transitions were recently observed in a series of SrSnO 3 ‐modified NaNbO 3 lead‐free antiferroelectric materials, exhibiting well‐defined double polarization hysteresis loops at ambient conditions. Here, transmission electron microscopy was employed to investigate the crystallography and domain configuration of this newly designed system via electron diffraction and centered dark‐field imaging. It was confirmed that antiferroelectricity is maintained in all compositions, manifested by the characteristic ¼ superlattice reflections in the electron‐diffraction patterns. By investigating the antiferroelectric domains and domain boundaries in NaNbO 3 , we demonstrate that antiphase boundaries are present and their irregular periodicity is responsible for the streaking features along the ¼ superlattice reflections in the electron‐diffraction patterns. The signature domain blocks observed in pure NaNbO 3 are maintained in the SrSnO 3 ‐modified ceramics, but disappear when the amount of SrSnO 3 reaches 7 mol.%. In particular, a well‐defined and distinct domain configuration is observed in the NaNbO 3 sample modified with 5 mol.% SrSnO 3 , which presents a parallelogram domain morphology.