A colossal dielectric response of Bi1-xSmxFeO3 nanopowders

Abstract

The dielectric permittivity of the pressed powder samples of Bi1-xSmxFeO3, with Sm content "x" varying in the range 0 - 0.2, has been investigated in the temperature range from 20 to 400 C and the frequency range from 100 Hz to 100 kHz. We have shown that the Sm content impacts significantly the real and imaginary parts of effective dielectric permittivity, which have expanded diffuse maxima with a colossal magnitude up to 105 (for the real part) and up to 108 (for the imaginary one) at temperatures 300 - 400 K. Analysis of experimental data carried has shown that both the real and imaginary parts of effective dielectric permittivity may be comprehensively explained by considering a complex interplay of a diffuse ferroelectric-paraelectric phase transition and the Maxwell-Wagner-Sillars effects, which emerge from the formation of spatial charges at interfaces between nanograins and at the ferroelectric nanoparticle-air interface. Processing of experimental data for the real and imaginary parts of the effective dielectric permittivity within effective medium approach allows us to separate and analyze the colossal dielectric response of the nanoparticles itself. The main trends followed from experiments are supported by the theoretically simulated dependences, which reveal correlations between the temperature behavior of dielectric properties and phase state of the Bi1-xSmxFeO3 nanoparticles.