Influence of Zr-doping on the microstructure and microwave dielectric properties of Ba(Mg1/3Ta2/3)O3 materials

The effect of Zr-species addition on the microwave dielectric properties of Ba(Mg1/3Ta2/3)O3, BMT materials was examined. The sintering behavior and the microwave dielectric properties of the BMT materials varies with the routes by which the Zr-species were incorporated. Two-step process leads to pronounced improvement, whereas single-step process results in markedly degradation on microwave Q-factor for the materials. SEM and X-ray diffraction analyses reveal that the main factor, resulting in deleterious effect due to addition of Zr-species via single-step process, in the induction on the formation of secondary phase, which is turn, is owing to the slow reaction kinetics of ZrO2 and BaCO3 for the formation of BaZrO3 perovskite phase.