We report the results of temperature-dependent neutron powder diffraction experiments on (1−x)BiScO3–xPbTiO3 (x=0.62, 0.64, and 0.66) within the morphotropic phase boundary. In all samples the monoclinic phase is found to coexist with the tetragonal phase below the ferroelectric transition temperature. The details of structural information demonstrate a delicate balance between the coexisting two phases for x=0.64. Such delicate balance is suggested to be sensitive to an external electric field, thus responsible for the enhanced electromechanical properties observed for x=0.64. Our result reveals that phase separation and the delicate balance between two phases are crucial to understand the unique properties at the morphotropic phase boundary in (1−x)BiScO3–xPbTiO3 ferroelectric systems.

The structural, magnetic and electric properties of Pr 1 − x Sr 1+x CoO 4 layered perovskite have been investigated systematically over the range of doping, 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.40. The Rietveld refinements of X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) patterns at room temperature indicate that the samples crystallize in the K 2 NiF 4 -type structure with group symmetry I4/mmm. The samples of 0 ≤ x < 0.20 show Curie-Weiss paramagnetic behavior. With increasing x (0.20 ≤ x ≤ 0.40), three magnetic transition temperatures can be identified. The ground state exhibits a spin glass (SG) phase below the spin glass transition temperature T SG . Above, there is a mixture of ferromagnetic (FM) and antiferromagnetic (AFM) short-range order for T SG < T < T M with T M denoting the temperature of the corresponding anomaly in the magnetic susceptibility data. The third state can be attributed to a Griffiths phase for T M < T

The structural, magnetic, and electric properties of Dy1−xSrxCoO3−δ perovskite have been investigated systematically over the range of doping, 0.65≤x≤0.90. The Rietveld refinements of x-ray powder diffraction patterns at room temperature indicate that the samples with 0.65≤x≤0.75 show a tetragonal structure with I4/mmm group symmetry, while the compounds with 0.80≤x≤0.90 are cubic with pm3m group symmetry. Zero field-cooled magnetization, M(T), of 0.65≤x≤0.85 samples reveals a cusp at around room temperature. For all samples, M(T) increases rapidly below 50 K due to the paramagnetism of Dy sublattice. The inverse magnetic susceptibility, χ−1(T), was described by using Curie–Weiss law. The resistivity (ρ) data can be explained according to a three-dimensional variable range hopping model in a certain temperature range. The density of states at the vicinity of Fermi level is roughly estimated.

The structural, magnetic, and electric properties of perovskite Y1−xSrxCoO 3−δ have been investigated systematically over the 0.6 ≤ x ≤ 0.9 range of doping. The refinements of X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) patterns at room temperature indicates that the investigated samples show a unit cell of about 2 × 2 × 4 simple perovskite cubes with I4/mmm group symmetry. An antiferromagnetic (AFM) phase is observed for a Sr doping of 0.60 ≤ x < 0.775. With a further increase of Sr content, 0.775 ≤ x ≤ 0.90, a mixture of AFM and ferromagnetic clusters may exist. No metallic behavior is observed for samples investigated in ambient conditions. The resistivity (ρ) data can be described using a three-dimensional variable range hopping (VRH) model. The density of states in the vicinity of the Fermi level for all compositions can be roughly estimated by fitting the temperature dependence of the resistivity.