Eur. Phys. J. B 48, 367-372 (2005)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2005-00407-9

Effects of Gd³⁺ doping on structural and dielectric properties of PZT (Zr:Ti = 52:48) piezoceramics

¹ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Rama VI Road, Bangkok 10400, Thailand
² Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Thammasat University, Phaholyothin Road, Bangkok, Thailand
³ 846/227 Bangmod, Prachautid 44, Thungkru, Bangkok 10140, Thailand
⁴ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Mongkut's University of Technology, Thonburi, Bangkok 10140, Thailand

Corresponding author: ^a nitinai_udomkan@yahoo.com

Received: 16 May 2005
Published online: 23 December 2005

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to study the effect of doping Gd into Pb(Zr_0.52TiO₃ ceramics prepared by solid state reaction. X-ray diffraction patterns show that all PGZT samples are of tetragonal structure and the highest doping should be no more than 2 mole % Gd at which the unreacted oxides start to appear. The electron spin resonance (ESR) spectra of PGZT's indicate that Gd³⁺ can enter both A site of the perovskite structure instead of only A site as widely believed. The ESR peaks resonance shift towards low fields as the concentration is higher, which is due to the change in crystal field experienced by Gd³⁺ ions. At x =0.001, 0.005 and 0.01 dopings, two sets of powder ESR signals arising from Gd³⁺ (4f⁷, spin 7/2) ions at A site. The first set shows some fine structure having strong absorption peaks centered at 76.26 mT (g = 8.550). The second is a seven-peak spectrum centered at 206.01 mT (g = 3.165), which belongs to the Gd³⁺ ions at B sites. Furthermore, the overlapped ESR strong absorption peaks from 309.17 mT to 314.49 mT () belong to Gd³⁺ of unreacted Gd₂O₃. The local environments of Gd³⁺ ions were verified from the calculated ESR spectra using appropriate spin Hamiltonian parameter, i.e. gyromagnetic tensor g, zero-field splitting D and hyperfine tensor A.