Studies of Structural, Dielectric, Electrical, and Optical Properties of Sr3CuZr4O12 Ceramic for Photovoltaic Applications
摘要
In this paper, synthesis (solid-state reaction) and characterizations of the strontium copper zirconate (Sr3CuZr4O12, SCZO) ceramic are reported. The XRD analysis suggests an orthorhombic crystal structure with average crystallite size and lattice strain found to be 87.8 nm and 0.00135 respectively. The analysis of the Raman lines confirms the presence of all constituent elements. The UV visible spectrum shows a higher potentiality of absorbing visible light at a wavelength of 629 nm and provides a bandgap energy of 1.98 eV, which may find suitable for photovoltaic applications. The dielectric study reveals the presence of Maxwell-Wanger type of dielectric dispersion. The study of impedance spectra supports the negative temperature coefficient resistance (NTCR) character. The modulus study suggests the presence of short-range mobility of the charge carriers at low frequency and oxygen vacancy, defect, and impurity may cause long-range mobility of charge carriers at a higher frequency. A thermally generated activated relaxation process is confirmed by the increase of the activation energies with frequency. The presence of the semi-circular arcs in Nyquist plots suggests a semiconductor nature; which found applications in spintronics and energy storage devices. The study of the polarization–electric field (P-E) loop opens up the possibility of the ferroelectric property in the studied sample. Novelty: Synthesis (solid-state reaction) and characterization (XRD, RAMAN, UV, LCR, PE) of a Sr3CuZr4O12 ceramic are reported. An orthorhombic structure with an average crystallite size of 87.8 nm and lattice strain of 0.00135 is formed. UV visible study provides an energy bandgap of 1.98 eV, which is a good range for photovoltaic applications. A study of impedance spectroscopy confirms the NTCR behavior and a P-E loop study suggests the ferroelectric nature.