Ricardo A. Mascarello Gotardo, Fabio L. Zabotto, Ducinei Garcia, José A. Eiras, Gustavo S. Dias, Luiz F. Cótica, Ivair A. dos Santos e Adelino A. Coelho
SCRIPTA MATERIALIA – Volume: 68; Issue: 5; Pages: 293-296; DOI: 10.1016/j.scriptamat.2012.10.045
TbMnO3ceramics with enhanced dielectric properties were synthesized by an innovative route combining high-energy ball mill-ing and hot-forging sintering. Dielectric investigations reveal the presence of two distinct relaxation processes: one thermally acti-vated mostly due to dipolar effects and other related to the movement of polar clusters or electric dipoles. Long-range polar orderwas not achieved, as ferroelectricity in TbMnO3is strongly dependent on the crystallographic direction. A distribution of relaxationtimes indicates a cooperative response of the electric dipoles.