Transições de fase em perovskitas politípicas

Abstract

In this thesis, vibrational spectroscopy was used to investigate the structural transitions of polytypic perovskites. Representative compounds of two polytypes were studied: the multiferroic 3C-type perovskite Pb(Fe1/2Nb1/2)O3 (PFN) and the 6H-type perovskites Ba3B2+Sb2O9 (B = Mg, Ca e Sr). Based on anomalies or deviations from normal behavior of the adjustable parameters of the temperature dependence of the phonon spectra of these compounds, it was possible to identify structural transformations. In PFN, it was observed, evidences of two transitions between ferroelectric phases, in addition to a transition between different magnetic ordering states (paramagnetic → antiferromagnetic) and different polar states (paraelectric → ferroelectric). These results provide stronger evidences than previous Raman Spectroscopy reports in literature due to a better resolution, which allowed us to observe, for example, a new phonon at the Néel temperature. In the case of the 6H perovskites, besides to the usual observation of temperature dependence of the phonon spectra, which provides evidences of the transition of a hexagonal to monoclinic phase at 140 K in the Ba3MgSb2O9 (BMS) and of a monoclinic to triclinic phase at 240 K in the Ba3MgSb2O9 (BCS), we classify the phonons of the three compounds using two methods. First we applied the Hartree-Fock ab-initio method to calculate the normal modes of the Sb2O9 dimer; and assuming that the unit cell of BMS is constituted of Sb2O9 dimers and isolated ions of Ba and Mg, we correlate, using group theory methods, the calculated modes of Sb2O9 with the internal modes of BMS. Later we used the FG Wilson method to confirm the previous results, being obtained a good agreement between the two methods.