Relationship between the evolutions of the microstructure and semiconductor properties of yttrium-doped barium titanate ceramics
Resource
Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 44(34), 345403
Journal
Journal of Physics D Applied Physics
Pages
345403
Date Issued
2011
Date
2011
Author(s)
Abstract
Intricate connections among the microstructural effect, semiconducting tendency and charge compensation behaviour of yttrium (Y3+) dopants in near-stoichiometric barium titanate (BaTiO3; Ba/Ti atomic ratio = 0.999) ceramics sintered at 1460 °C in air are examined. It is found that with increasing Y3+ doping up to 2.0 mol%, the microstructure of BaTiO3 evolves from a liquid-phase-assisted dense-sintered microstructure to a highly porous microstructure characterized by connected pores and loose lattices of fused submicrometre grains. During such evolution, a transitional microstructure characterized by large distinctive pores and grains with abnormal morphology is also identified. When Y3+ doping is increased progressively from 0.02 to 0.2 mol%, the (negative) majority carrier concentration and conductivity are increased substantially by 8 orders of magnitude. This increase in n-type semiconductor characteristics is contributed not only by the increasing substitution of Y3+ for Ba2+ in host BaTiO3, but also by the formation of yttrium-rich and/or oxygen-deficient precipitates at the grain boundaries. The grain boundary phases would therefore stabilize the mechanism of free electron compensation and enable the transportation of electrons through the grain boundaries. The measured Hall effect data indicate the shift from the n-type to p-type semiconductor properties with increasing Y3+ doping. The carrier mobilities of 1.0 and 2.0 mol% Y-doped BaTiO3 are high; this is attributed to their highly porous microstructures which provide easy diffusion paths for the charge carriers. Through a combined interpretation of the diffractometry, microscopy, mass spectrometry and Hall effect data, Y 3+ doping at 1.0 mol% is found to be the critical doping amount separating different site-occupying behaviours of Y3+ in the BaTiO3 cation sites, which eventually lead to different charge compensation mechanisms and semiconductor properties. © 2011 IOP Publishing Ltd.
Type
journal article
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