Effect of lanthanum substitution at A site on structure and enhanced properties of new Aurivillius oxide K _0.25Na _0.25La _0.5Bi ₂Nb ₂O ₉

Aurivillius ferroelectrics K _0.25Na _0.25La _0.5Bi ₂Nb ₂O ₉ (KNBN-La) and K _0.25Na _0.25Bi _2.5Nb ₂O ₉ (KNBN-Bi) were prepared by using solid-state reaction process. Rietveld refinements for the KNBN-La and KNBN-Bi were carried out by using powder X-ray diffraction at room temperature and they were confirmed to be two-layer Aurivillius oxides with orthorhombic space group A2 ₁am. The lattice parameters are a = 5.50468(10) Å, b = 5.49217(10) Å, and c = 25.05108(35) Å for KNBN-La and a = 5.48867(6) Å, b = 5.47895(6) Å, and c = 25.10591(25) Å for KNBN-Bi. Lanthanum (La ³⁺) substitution for bismuth (Bi ³⁺) led to an enhancement in relaxation behavior for the KNBN-La ceramics, with a ferroelectric to paraelectric phase transition temperature (T _c) of about 360 °C. The KNBN-La ceramics had a high remnant polarization (P _r) of 13.6 μC cm ^-2 and a field-induced strain of up to 0.031%. Particularly, the decrease in P _r for the KNBN-La ceramics after 10 ⁸ cumulative switching cycles was only 6%.