High-temperature dielectric properties and impedance spectroscopy of PbHf1−x Sn x O3 ceramics

PbHf1−x Sn x O3 (PSH) ceramics were synthesised by a conventional solid-state reaction method. Dielectric properties were investigated in the temperature range of 20–650°C. As the Sn4+ content goes up, the phase transition temperatures of an antiferroelectric (AFE1) to another intermediate antiferroelectric (AFE2) phase and AFE2 to the paraelectric (PE) phase decrease gradually. When x≥0.1 for PSH ceramics, the ferroelectric (FE) phase appears around 225°C, and phase transition temperature from FE phase to PE phase goes up with the increasing concentration of Sn4+. Moreover, high-temperature dielectric relaxation (HTDR) phenomenon can be seen from all samples. Mechanism of HTDR was discussed from impedance spectroscopy and conductivity for PSH ceramics. It was found that three dielectric responses were observed in complex impedance plots and HTDR was involved with the movement of oxygen vacancies. Activation energy calculated from dielectric data suggested that the HTDR was governed by the hopping conduction process.