Temperature-dependent dielectric and energy-storage properties of Pb(Zr,Sn,Ti)O3 antiferroelectric bulk ceramics

The dielectric and energy-storage properties of Pb0.99Nb0.02[(Zr0.60Sn0.40)0.95Ti0.05]0.98O3 (PNZST) bulk ceramics near the antiferroelectric (AFE)-ferroelectric (FE) phase boundary are investigated as a function of temperature. Three characteristic temperatures T0, TC, T2 are obtained from the dielectric temperature spectrum. At different temperature regions (below T0, between T0 and TC, and above TC), three types of hysteresis loops are observed as square double loop, slim loop and linear loop, respectively. The switching fields and recoverable energy density all first increase and then decrease with increasing temperature, and reach their peak values at ∼T0. These results provide a convenient method to optimize the working temperature of antiferroelectric electronic devices through testing the temperature dependent dielectric properties of antiferroelectric ceramics.