Large electric-induced pyroelectric properties in Mn-doped (Pb0.87La0.02Ba0.1)(Zr0.75Sn0.16Ti0.09)O3 ceramics

In this paper, the figure of merit of (Pb0.87La0.02Ba0.1)(Zr0.75Sn0.16Ti0.09)O3 ceramics were improved by Mn doping and the effect of Mn content on the crystal structure and electric field induced pyroelectric properties of the ceramics were investigated. The largest figure of merit of 20 × 10−5 Pa−0.5 under a 800 V/mm dc bias field was observed in 0.4 mol% Mn doping (Pb0.87La0.02Ba0.1)(Zr0.75Sn0.16Ti0.09)O3 ceramics, which is larger than that of conventional phase transition pyroelectric materials. The enhancement of the pyroelectric response was due to the reductions in dielectric loss which can be ascribed to Mn acts as a hard dopant in the lattice of the ceramics, creating oxygen vacancies and pinning the residual domains.

► Mn doped improved the figure of merit of PLBZST ceramics.
► The figure of merit was far higher than that of BST and BZT.
► Large figure of merit was attributed that Mn doped decreased the dielectric loss.
► Improvement of pyroelectric property is beneficial for development of detectors.