M aterials Science & Engineering CAREER: Fundamental Structure-Dielectric Property Relationships of Fluorite Related compounds Juan C. Nino, University of Florida, DMR 0449710 Based on dielectric permittivity measurements as a function of temperature, it was determined that as the average lanthanide ionic radius in the Ln 3 NbO 7 compounds decreases, there is an increase in the temperature coefficient of capacitance (TCC) with a transition from The Ln 3 NbO 7 compounds that exhibit a dielectric relaxation have an associated phase transition involving off-center displacements within the rare earth coordination polyhedra (LnO 8 ). A correlation between the magnitude of the off-center displacement of the lanthanide ions and the temperature of the phase transition was established. This study focuses on the understanding of the origin of dielectric relaxation in the fluorite-related compounds (A 2 B 2 O 7 , A and B are cations), with particular focus on Ln 3 NbO 7 (Ln 3+ = lanthanides) compounds. To date there have been two key crystal-structural findings and two fundamental structure-dielectric property relationships have been identified Within the Ln 3 NbO 7 compounds, it was found that all the materials crystallizing with a defect fluorite crystal structure show no dielectric relaxation while those crystallizing with a weberite-type crystal structure exhibit a characteristic temperature and frequency dependent dielectric relaxation Juan C. Nino - NSF Highlights 2010 - DMR-0449710 1.1 2 1 .08 1.04 1 .00 0.96 -4 00 -3 00 -2 00 -1 00 0 100 200 300 400 500 Er Yb Y Average ionic radius ofLn 3+ (Å ) Tem perature coefficientofcapacitance 1.16 1.12 1.08 1.04 1.00 0.96 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 G dY b SmYb NdYb LaYb LaE r LaD y La Nd Gd Dy Er Yb w eberite-type defect fluorite Y Ion polarizability (Å 3 ) D ielectric Relaxation Ionic radius (Å) No Relaxation 0 100 200 300 400 500 0 .0 0 .1 0 .2 0 .3 Gd 3 N bO 7 La 3 N bO 7 Nd 3 N bO 7 Off-centerdisplacement(Å) Tem perature (K) LnO 8