LAUSR

Abstract A comparative microstructural study of as sintered and rubbed surfaces of BaTiO3 (BTO) ceramic pellet has been carried out using lab (8 keV Cu-Kα) as well as synchrotron (8–19 keV) based powder x-ray diffraction (XRD) at room temperature. These studies show a drastic change in the surface-microstructure of the BTO ceramics. Just a minutes rubbing of the BTO ceramics on a rough surface causes broadening of diffraction peaks. Nearly 3-times increase in the peak width and ∼ 3-times increase in integrated peak intensity of (00l) type peaks has been observed. The changes were analyzed as rubbing induced (00l) texturing and occurrence of anisotropic strain with maxima along [00l]. High temperature XRD studies reveal that for the strained BTO grains, the tetragonal to cubic transformation does not initiates at the proper TC ∼120 °C and does not complete even at temperatures ∼ 350 °C, which is ∼ 3 times the normal TC. About 20% of the tetragonal phase still remains untransformed. These features have been attributed to the formation of strain-glass phase at the rubbed surface of the BTO ceramics.