Structural, dielectric and ferroelectric properties of rare earth substituted lead zirconate titanate

Rare-earth (RE) metal (Pr, Yb, Sm) ions doped lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics were synthesized by the sol–gel auto-combustion technique and characterized for their structural, morphological and ferroelectric properties. The results from X-ray diffraction analysis of all these samples confirmed the tetragonal phase and only in the case of Sm doped PZT, there is pyrochlore phase. The surface morphology revealed a decrease in grain size with the RE doping with the lowest value for Yb–PZT. From the dielectric studies, a high value of dielectric constant of 2 × 105 was observed for Yb–PZT and drop in Curie temperature was observed for Pr and Sm doped PZT. The low dielectric loss and an increase in coercivity were found for Pr doped PZT which may have potential applications in memory devices.