A comparative dielectric relaxation study of PMN–PT and PMN–PZ ceramics using impedance spectroscopy

AC-impedance spectroscopic studies in the temperature range of 30–400 °C are carried out on solid solutions of lead magnesium niobate (PMN) with lead titanate (PT) and lead zirconate (PZ), both of them in the 65/35 atomic ratio. For PMN–PT this corresponds to the morphotropic phase boundary composition (with normal ferroelectric behaviour), and for PMN–PZ it is near the phase boundary between normal ferroelectric and relaxor ferroelectric compositions. The variation of dielectric permittivity with temperature at different frequencies shows normal ferroelectric and relaxor-like dependence for PMN–PT and PMN–PZ, respectively. Temperature-dependent spectroscopic modulus plots reveal a much broader peak for PMN–PZ compared to that for PMN–PT, which is consistent with the dielectric behaviour. PMN–PT shows nearly ideal Debye behaviour below Tm (the temperature of the permittivity maximum) and the behaviour departs from ideality above Tm, whereas non-ideal Debye behaviour is seen both below and above Tm for PMN–PZ. Complex modulus plots fit well with two depressed semicircles and three depressed semicircles, respectively, for PMN–PT and PMN–PZ. The relaxation observed in the spectroscopic plots around 1 MHz for PMN–PT has been assigned to polarisation relaxation expected for normal-sized domains. No such relaxation could be observed for PMN–PZ around 1 MHz because of the mesoscopic domain sizes.