Electrical and Optical Studies on Lanthanum Bismuth Titanate Modified Boro-Bismuth Titanate Glass-Matrix

Promising Aurivillius ceramic, namely lanthanum bismuth titanate (Bi 3.25 La 0.75 Ti 3 O 12 ; BLT) was prepared by solid-state route and embedded in the glass composition of boro-bismuth titanate in different successive weight percentages. The present ceramic- glass matrix samples, (100-x) [0.70 Bi 2 O 3 −0.20 B 2 O 3 −0.10 TiO 2 ] + x BLT (with x = 30, 40, 50, 60 wt%), were prepared by conventional melt quenching method. The X-ray diffraction studies revealed amorphous nature. Higher concentration of BLT embedded glass matrix has shown intergrowth-crystalline phase. Scanning electron microscope images have shown amorphous nature and mixed-phase for higher concentrations of BLT. The density and oxygen packing density of the samples were found to decrease with increasing the BLT composition, but an opposite trend was observed in the case of molar volume. Impedance data was measured in the frequency range of 100 Hz to 1 MHz to study the electrical response of the said above system. The complex modulus, FTIR and Raman spectroscopic plots were found to be informative to the dielectric data. Based on the decreasing trend of optical band gap energy with increasing the BLT composition and metallization criterion, one can suggest that the present samples are considered to be potential candidates for nonlinear optical applications.