Effects of annealing on the ageing properties of PMN-0.1PT ceramics doped by transition-metallic ions

Dielectric ageing behaviors of lead-based relaxor ferroelectric ceramics, which may affect their application in multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCs), have been an important research problem for many years. In this paper, the effects of annealing on ageing properties of the PMN-0.1PT system, respectively doped with Fe, Co and Ni ions and annealed in different atmospheres (air and N₂-H₂) after sintering, were studied. It is found that the annealing atmosphere has a strong influence on the ageing degree of the samples. For the air-annealed samples, the decrease in the dielectric constant was small; whilst for the N₂H₂-annealed samples, the decrease was much greater. It is assumed that the different valences of doped ions, resulting from the different annealing atmospheres, are responsible for the different ageing degrees