Contribution to the comprehension of dissipation phenomena in lead zirconate titanate: aliovalent doping effect

By the solid reaction method, undoped, potassium doped and niobium doped lead zirconate titanate (PZT) are elaborated. The mechanical losses measured in the range of the Hz as a function of temperature shows two peaks R1 and R2, and a ferroelectric transition peak P1 between ferroelectric and para-electric states on the undoped PZT—Pb(Zr0.54Ti0.46)O3—noted PZT54/46. Potassium doped PZT—Pb1−xKx(Zr0.54Ti0.46)O3—shortly called PKZT 100x/54/46 shows an increase in the height of both the peaks at a doping content, x, less than 0.5 at.% but an opposite effect is observed above this value. Niobium doped PZT—Pb[(Zr0.54Ti0.46)1−yNby]O3—shortly called PNZT 100y/54/46, shows the vanish of the R2 peak and the decrease of the height of the R1 peak when the doping content increases.