Origin of relaxor behavior in 0.78(Na0.5Bi0.5)TiO3-0.2SrTiO3-0.02BaTiO3 ceramic: An electrical modulus study
Highlights: • Implementation of IS technique to study thermal evolution of polar nano regions. • Indirect evidence of the existence of polar nano regions well above T{sub B} and below T{sub f}. • Visualization of relaxation dynamics of PNRs on cooling by a schematic diagram. - Abstract: The relaxation dynamics of the polar nano-regions (PNRs) in the 0.78Na{sub 0.5}Bi{sub 0.5}TiO{sub 3}-0.2SrTiO{sub 3}-0.02BaTiO{sub 3} lead free ternary system over a wide temperature range (50–650 °C) is investigated using complex electric modulus formalism. The modulus spectra are analyzed across three characteristic temperatures T{sub B}, T{sub m}, and T{sub f} with a special focus on the evolution of dynamics of PNRs. Portraying high capacitance of shoulder response as compared to the bulk response in M{sup (}f) spectra shows indirectly the presence of highly polarisable entities that persist even above T{sub B} and below T{sub f}. The activation energies extracted from an Arrhenius fit to the relaxation time of both bulk and shoulder response signify different relaxation mechanisms. Further, the value of the stretched exponent β and the scaling behavior study of the M{sup (}f) spectra envisage temperature sensitive dipolar relaxation.