Relaxor characteristics of highly tunable lead-free 0.5Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3-0.5(Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3 thin film grown on LaNiO3/Si by pulsed laser deposition

We report a comprehensive study on relaxor-like characteristics exhibited by (l00) oriented 0.5Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3–0.5(Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3 thin film grown on LaNiO3 coated Si substrate by pulsed laser deposition. The diffuseness coefficient value close to 2 and excellent fit of Vogel–Fulcher curve to the experimental data, suggest its relaxor characteristics. The ‘butterfly’ shaped dc field dependence of permittivity and evolution of P–E hysteresis loop, at different temperatures, clearly indicate the occurrence of polar nanoregions in this material. The high tunability nr ∼ 70 and low temperature coefficient TCC = 5.18 × 10−4 K−1 show that the BCZT50 ceramics could be a promising candidate for tunable capacitor applications.