Hierarchical domain structures associated with oxygen octahedra tilting patterns were observed in lead-free (Bi1/2Na1/2)TiO3 ceramics using aberration-corrected high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). Three types of domains are induced by distinct… Click to show full abstract
Hierarchical domain structures associated with oxygen octahedra tilting patterns were observed in lead-free (Bi1/2Na1/2)TiO3 ceramics using aberration-corrected high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). Three types of domains are induced by distinct mechanisms: the ‘orientation-domain’ is induced at micrometer scale formed by different tilting orientations of the oxygen octahedra, the ‘meso-chemical-domain’ occurs at a few tens of nanometer scale by chemical composition variation on the A-site in the ABO3 perovskite structure, and the ‘nano-cluster-region’ runs across several unit-cells with apparent A-site cation segregation with oxygen vacancies clustering around Na cations. Based on HRTEM amplitude contrast imaging (ACI), the correlation between the oxygen octahedral tilting pattern and compositional non-stoichiometry was established. The role of the hierarchical domain structure associated with the tilting patterns of the oxygen octahedra on the ferroelectric behavior of (Bi1/2Na1/2)TiO3 is also discussed.
               
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