The dielectric and luminescence properties of the 0–3 type BaTiO3–CaTiO3:Pr3+ composite ceramics prepared by cold sintering assistance

In this work, the cold sintering assisted process was utilized to fabricate dense 0–3 type (1- x )BaTiO 3 - x CaTiO 3 :Pr 3+ ((1- x )BT- x CT:Pr 3+ , x  = 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3) binary composite ceramics. Under the combined action of uniaxial pressure and temperature, CT:Pr 3+ has been successfully integrated with BT to form the preliminary BT-CT:Pr 3+ composites during cold sintering. It is found that the cold sintering could increase the grain size a little, and annealing at 900 °C significantly promotes the grain size. The prepared (1- x )BT- x CT:Pr 3+ composite ceramics have a pure phase of CT:Pr 3+ , which is difficult to prepare using high temperature solid reaction method when x  < 0.23. It is found that all the composite ceramics exhibit excellent ferroelectric properties . Furthermore, a strong photoluminescence , photo-stimulated luminescence and thermal luminescence properties have been obtained. Present study illustrates a potential approach to combine luminescent and piezoelectric properties into the ferroelectric-based composite ceramics by the cold sintering assisted sintering.