Ferroelectric phase transition and optical performance of PLZnNZT transparent ceramics

Abstract Lead-based Pb 0.97 La 0.02 (Zn 1/3 Nb 2/3 ) 0.3 (Zr 0.53 Ti 0.47 ) 0.7 O 3 (PLZnNZT) transparent ceramics with the addition of 2 wt% excess PbO were prepared by hot-pressing sintering method. The hot-pressing sintered PLZnNZT ceramics exhibit dense and large-grained microstructure, and perovskite structure with distorted cubic-like symmetry. The ceramics exhibit normal ferroelectric-like dielectric behavior with slightly diffused ferroelectric phase transition characteristic. The PLZnNZT ceramics exhibit fully developed, symmetric and saturated P – E hysteresis loop and large piezoelectric constant d 33 , being 468 pC/N. The ceramics with 120 μm thickness exhibit maximum transmittance of 53% at 850 nm when Fresnel losses was not included, almost totally transparent in the mid IR region (2500–5600 nm), and low-lying optical band gap energy E g of 3.23 eV. Three diffused Raman bands centering around 240 cm −1 , 560 cm −1 and 750 cm −1 are observed by micro-Raman spectroscopy, which can be attributed to F2g [BO 6 ] bending vibration, A1g [BO 6 ] stretching vibration and “soft mode” mixed by the bending and stretching vibrations, respectively, confirming the normal ferroelectric-like characteristic.