Structural Analysis of Sintered Products of BaTiO₃ Doped with Sm³⁺

Cations such as samarium (Sm) are highly soluble in barium titanate (BaTiO₃) and, therefore, they are used in a variety of ways to modify their properties. BaTiO₃ has a perovskite structure (ABO₃), where Ba occupies the A site and Ti site B. Sm is incorporated into site A, where it behaves as a donor according to the equation: \( Ba^{2 + } \to Sm^{3 + } + e \). In this research, electroceramics base BaTiO₃ doped with Sm³⁺ were synthesized using the common solid-state reaction method through the electronic compensation mechanism (Ba_1−xSm_xTi_1−x/4O₃) with x = 0.001 and 0.002, % weight. The precursor powders (BaCO₃, TiO₂, and Sm₂O₃) were dried at 200 °C for 6 h and later the physical mixtures were decarbonated at 900 °C and sintered at 1450 °C for 8 h. X-ray diffraction spectra (XRD) obtained for the samples after the decarbonation process showed the total absence of carbonates in them. The structural analysis by XRD of the samples after the sintering process it suggests a predominantly tetragonal crystalline BaTiO₃ phase. These results were confirmed with those obtained by Raman spectroscopy in the bands at 205, 265, and 305 cm⁻¹.