Study on growth, optical and dielectric properties of ‘Nd’ DOPED NBT-BT (0.94(Na 0.5 Bi 0.5 tio 3 )-0.06batio 3 ) relaxor ferroelectric single crystals

The present work describes the effect of Neodymium (Nd) in the NBT-BT (0.94Na 0.5 Bi 0.5 TiO 3 -0.06BaTiO 3 (NBT-BT (94/06)) + xNd (x = 0, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0 wt%)) crystal grown by flux method. As the concentration of the Nd increases beyond 0.4 wt%, homogeneity of the solution is lost and the multinucleation was observed. Color of the crystal changed from yellow to muddy green and size of the crystals were reduced due to the incorporation of Nd in NBT-BT. Nd completely diffused into the NBT-BT lattice, hence no secondary phase formation was observed in XRD. But the peaks were shifted towards the higher angle side due to the shrinkage of NBT-BT lattice. Optical properties of the crystals are studied using UV–visible and photoluminescence spectra. Except 0.4 wt% of Nd, for all other concentration emission at 1064 nm was observed in the PL spectra. Effect of Nd in dielectric constant and the relaxor properties are discussed in detail.