Processing and properties of vanadium doped strontium niobate

Strontium niobate was doped with vanadium and the resulting effects on the dielectric properties of the material were studied. It was shown that the single-phase slab perovskite structure was maintained with up to 10 at.% vanadium doping. Microstructure and dielectric properties of the samples were studied. The average grain size of the samples appeared to increase with increasing vanadium content and dielectric properties were significantly enhanced by the addition of vanadium. It is hypothesized that this is due to the smaller atomic radius of vanadium in comparison to niobium, which results in more ‘rattling space’ within the oxygen octahedron in the structure of the Sr2Nb2O7.