Commercial EIA-Y5V base-metal-electrode multilayer ceramic capacitors (BME-MLCCs) made of (CaO+ZrO 2 )-doped BaTiO 3 are analyzed for the microstructure and investigated for its relation to dielectric properties. The characteristic diffuse scattering (DS) intensities observed in BaTiO 3 ceramics and the featureless "solid-solution" grains in Y5V capacitor chips are originated from multiple Ti sites in the dynamic BaTiO 3 structure. The pseudo-cubic (PC)-grains retaining the overall cubic (C-) symmetry metastably at room temperature are embedded with polar nanoregions (PNRs) in the ferroelectric (FE) tetragonal (T-), and rhombohedral (R-) phases, as revealed by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The presence of PNRs contributes effectively to large relative permittivity e r % 13 200 at 25°C. The FE T-domains grow from within PC-grains at the expense of embedded PNRs after prolonged annealing by extending "oxidizing firing" at 950°C in pO 2 = 10 -7 atm. These domains contain less Zr with otherwise homogeneously distributed solutes in PNR-dispersed PC-grains. Although preserving the relaxors characteristics, e r is reduced to~11 000 after 12 h, and then to~9000 after 24 h annealing. The reduction in e r is attributed to the annealing-induced FE T-domains grown at the expense of PNRs in PC-grains. The V€ ogel-Fulcher analysis indicates that Y5V ceramics are in the relaxor FE category, containing PNRs derived from polarization frustration.C. Alan Randall-contributing editor Manuscript No. 34036.
J ournaldispersion of e r were investigated for the crystalline phases using X-ray diffractometry (XRD). The microstructure and microanalysis were determined using scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM).
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