Oxygen diffusion in cubic, nominally undoped, (100) oriented BaTiO3 single crystals has been studied by means of (18)O2/(16)O2 isotope exchange annealing and subsequent determination of the isotope profiles in the solid by time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS). Experiments were carried out as a function of temperature 973 < T/K < 1173, at an oxygen activity of aO2 = 0.200, and as a function of oxygen activity 0.009 < aO2 < 0.900 at T = 1073 K. The oxygen isotope profiles comprise two parts: slow diffusion through a space-charge zone at the surface depleted of oxygen vacancies followed by faster diffusion in a homogeneous bulk phase. The entire isotope profile can be described by a single solution to the diffusion equation involving only three fitting parameters: the surface exchange coefficient ks*, the space-charge potential Φ0 and the bulk diffusion coefficient D*(∞). Analysis of the temperature and oxygen activity dependencies of D*(∞) and Φ0 yields a consistent picture of both the bulk and the interfacial defect chemistry of BaTiO3. Values of the oxygen vacancy diffusion coefficient DV extracted from measured D*(∞) data are compared with literature data; consequently a global expression for the vacancy diffusivity in BaTiO3 for the temperature range 466 < T/K < 1273 is obtained, with an activation enthalpy of vacancy migration, ΔHmig,V = (0.70 ± 0.04) eV.

The reoxidation of sintered BaTiO3-based multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) is currently an empirically determined, but poorly understood, procedure. In this work, the incorporation of oxygen into BaTiO3-based MLCCs has been studied by means of isotope exchange annealing (O182/O162, H12O18/H12O16 or H22O16/H12O16) and subsequent determination of the isotope profiles in the solid by secondary ion mass spectrometry. Oxygen isotope profiles in the barium titanate dielectric can be described by a bulk diffusion coefficient D∗ and a surface exchange coefficient k∗. The values obtained for k∗ indicate that oxygen incorporation from H2O is much faster than from dry O2; it thus plays the key role in the reoxidation process.

(18)O/(16)O exchange annealing and subsequent Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) analysis is used to investigate oxygen transport in dense, nanocrystalline (average grain size d ≈ 300 nm) ceramics of nominally un-doped BaTiO3. Isotope penetration profiles are obtained as a function of temperature, 973 < T/K < 1173, at an oxygen activity aO2 = 0.20 and as a function of oxygen activity, 0.002 < aO2 < 0.20, at T = 1073 K. All isotope profiles show the same unusual shape: a flattened profile over the first ∼10(2) nm, followed by a short, conventional diffusion profile. We demonstrate that the entire isotope profile can be described quantitatively by a numerical solution to the diffusion equation based on an increase in the local oxygen diffusion coefficient close to the surface. This position-dependent increase is attributed to additional oxygen vacancies that are generated by diffusion of chlorine impurities out of the ceramics. The presence of chlorine derives from the chemical route necessary to produce nanometric powders: it thus indicates a new manner in which nanocrystalline ceramics may differ from their microcrystalline counterparts.

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