Fabrication and properties of Nd3+-doped ferroelectric barium bismuth titanate glass-ceramic nanocomposites

• Nd3+doped ferroelectric barium bismuth titanate glass-ceramics has been fabricated.
• The emission intensity is enhanced by 9-fold in the heat-treated GC samples.
• Dielectric constant has been increased from 18 to 53 with heat-treatment time.
• High hardness of glass and GCs (>4 GPa) were obtained.

This paper demonstrates the synthesis of precursor glasses for ferroelectric barium bismuth titanate (BaBi4Ti4O15) (BBiT) by the melt-quench technique in the SiO2K2OBaOBi2O3TiO2 (SKBBT) glass system doped with Nd2O3. BBiT glass-ceramic (GC) nanocomposites have been derived from these precursor glasses by controlled heat treatment. The structural properties of the GCs have been investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), electron microscopy (TEM) and FTIR reflectance spectroscopy. The activation energy of crystallization of the precursor glass has been estimated using DSC data and found to vary in the range of 203–218 kJ/mol for three different models. The emission intensity of the 4F3/2 → 4I11/2 transition is enhanced by an increase in heat-treatment time and increases about 9-fold in the GC samples heat-treated for 60 h compared to the precursor glass. An increase in the dielectric constant with increase in ceramization time has been observed which suggests the formation of non-centrosymmetric BBiT ferroelectric crystals upon ceramization.