Le diamant monocristallin possède des propriétés électroniques, thermiques et optiques exceptionnelles. Ce matériau est un excellent candidat pour les applications en électronique de puissance, en détection, en optique et en physique quantique. Malheureusement, les méthodes de synthèse conventionnelles du diamant monocristallin, basées sur le procédé Haute Pression Haute Température, produisent des monocristaux de petites dimensions. Pour lever ce verrou technologique, l’hétéroépitaxie du diamant sur iridium par CVD, utilisant le procédé de nucléation par polarisation (BEN), est une alternative pertinente. Ce procédé a été appliqué sur des substrats Ir/SrTiO3 (001) massifs. Néanmoins, les dimensions des substrats commerciaux de SrTiO3 massifs sont également limitées.Par conséquent, la stratégie retenue pour cette thèse est d’utiliser les substrats d’SrTiO3/Si (001). Ces substrats sont constitués d’une couche mince de SrTiO3 déposés par MBE sur des substrats silicium. Une étude de la stabilité thermique des films minces de SrTiO3 a permis d’optimiser le procédé de dépôt d’iridium et d’obtenir des films d’iridium possédant de très faibles désorientations cristallines. Les paramètres du procédé de BEN ont été corrélés aux taux de couverture des domaines (nucléi de diamant en relation d’épitaxie) afin de maitriser les effets des différents paramètres et de contrôler le taux de couverture des domaines. Ce contrôle précis du procédé de BEN nous a permis d’étudier l’influence du taux de couverture des domaines sur la qualité cristalline du diamant. Enfin, les collaborations liées à ce programme de recherche nous ont permis de synthétiser et de caractériser des films de diamant épais autosupporté. Toutes ces connaissances ont été mises à profit pour élargir la taille des substrats et pour obtenir des films de diamant hétéroépitaxiés sur des substrats de 5×5 mm2, puis 7×7 mm2. Des premiers essais encourageants sur des substrats 10×10 mm2 ont également été menés. / The single crystal diamond has exceptional electronic, thermal and optical properties. This material is an excellent candidate for applications in power electronics, in detection, in optics and in quantum physics. Unfortunately, conventional single crystal diamond synthesis methods, based on High Pressure High Temperature process, produce small-sized single crystals. To provide new technological solutions, diamond heteroepitaxy on iridium by CVD, using the Bias Enhanced Nucleation (BEN) process, is a pertinent alternative. This process was applied on Ir/SrTiO3 (001) bulk substrates. However, the dimensions of commercial bulk SrTiO3 substrates are also limited.Therefore, the chosen strategy for this thesis is to use SrTiO3/Si (001) substrates. These substrates are made of a thin layer of SrTiO3 deposited by MBE on silicon substrates. The study of the thermal stability of SrTiO3 thin films has allowed the optimization of the iridium deposition process and the synthesis of iridium films with very low crystal misorientation. The BEN process parameters were correlated with the coverage ratio of the domains (epitaxial diamond nuclei) to understand the effects of different parameters and to control the coverage ratio of the domains. This precise control of the BEN process has allowed us to study the influence of the coverage ratio of the domains on the crystalline quality of the diamond epilayers. Finally, collaborations related to this research program allowed us to synthesize and characterize thick, free-standing diamond films. All this knowledge has been used for substrate upscaling in order to obtain heteroepitaxial diamond films on 5×5 mm2 and on 7×7 mm2 substrates. Encouraging first tests on 10×10 mm2 substrates were also conducted.

A literature review on the topic of ferroic and multiferroic solid solutions of BaTiO3, SrTiO3 and EuTiO3 forms the first part of this master thesis. The second part describes the experimental preparation and evaluation of the properties of samples of europium strontium titanates - EuxSr1-xTiO3. First, the high temperature solid state synthesis was carried out and relative density and open porosity of the sintered samples were evaluated. The sintered samples showed open porosity higher than 10%. The reasons for this behavior were evaluated and described from the point of view of experimental conditions and thermodynamical calculations. Finally, electric and dielectric properties of selected samples were measured. These results show that these samples are insulators and their residual conductivity is caused probably by oxygen vacancies, arising from the synthesis in a strongly reducing atmosphere of pure hydrogen.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・論文博士 / 博士(工学) / 乙第13015号 / 論工博第4140号 / 新制||工||1650(附属図書館) / 32943 / (主査)教授 斧 髙一, 教授 木村 健二, 教授 立花 明知 / 学位規則第4条第2項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) / Kyoto University / DFAM

No description available.

Les oxydes de métaux de transition sont d'un grand intérêt en raison du large éventail de propriétés qu'ils présentent. Ils ont potentiellement de nombreuses applications technologiques dans le domaine de l'électronique, reposant en partie sur le développement de dispositifs pour la technologie de l'information nécessitant de les contacter avec des métaux. Ce travail de thèse, basé principalement sur l'utilisation de la spectroscopie de photoémission, porte sur une étude détaillée de l'interface Fe/SrTiO₃ réalisée à température ambiante, dans laquelle nous nous sommes intéressés en particulier aux propriétés structurales et électroniques. Nous montrons que le fer est épitaxié, que sa croissance est en îlots et que les films couvrent entièrement le substrat pour le dépôt de quelques monocouches atomiques. Nous mettons en évidence une réaction du métal avec le substrat lors de la formation de l'interface qui se manifeste par la présence de titane réduit à l'interface. Nous associons cette réduction du titane à la présence de lacunes d'oxygène à l'interface Fe/SrTiO₃. Alors que la hauteur de barrière Schottky attendue pour une jonction abrupte Fe/SrTiO₃(001) est d'environ 1 eV pour les électrons, nous montrons que la présence des lacunes d'oxygène à l'interface abaisse la hauteur de barrière Schottky à environ 0,05 eV. La création de lacunes d'oxygène lors du dépôt de fractions de monocouche de fer sur le SrTiO₃ conduit aussi à une métallisation de la surface du semi-conducteur. Ce mécanisme est relié à la création d'états donneurs chargés positivement associés aux lacunes d'oxygène pendant le dépôt. Pour déterminer le profil de bande dans le substrat nous avons résolu l'équation de Poisson à une dimension dans une approche de la théorie de la fonctionnelle de la densité modifiée, en tenant compte de la couche d'accumulation d'électrons. Confrontant ces calculs avec nos résultats de photoémission nous trouvons que le potentiel de surface présente des inhomogénéités spatiales parallèlement à la surface. / Transition metal oxides are of great interest because of the wide range of properties they exhibit. They have potentially many technological applications in the field of electronics, especially based on the development of devices for information technology requiring contacting these oxides with metals. This thesis work, mainly based on photoemission spectroscopy, is a detailed study of the Fe/SrTiO₃ interface grown at room temperature in which we focus in particular on structural and electronic properties. We show that iron has an epitaxial growth with an island morphology and that films completely cover the substrate for the deposition of few atomic monolayers. We demonstrate that the metal reacts with the substrate during the formation of the interface which results in the presence of reduced titanium at the interface. We associate this reduction of titanium with the presence of oxygen vacancies at the Fe/SrTiO₃ interface. While the expected Schottky barrier height for a Fe/SrTiO₃(001) abrupt junction is about 1 eV for electrons, we show that the presence of oxygen vacancies at the interface lowers this Schottky barrier height to about 0.05 eV. The creation of oxygen vacancies during the deposition of fractions of iron monolayer on SrTiO₃ also leads to the metallization of the semiconductor surface. This mechanism is related to the creation of positively charged donor states associated with oxygen vacancies during deposition. To determine the band profile in the substrate, we solved the one-dimensional Poisson equation in a modified approach of the density functional theory taking into account the electron accumulation layer. By comparing these calculations with our photoemission results, we find that the surface potential has spatial inhomogeneities parallel to the surface.

Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) are electrochemical energy conversion devices which allow fuel gases, e.g. hydrogen or natural gas, to be converted to electricity and heat at much high efficiencies than combustion-based energy conversion technologies. SOFC are particularly suited to employment in stationary energy conversion applications, e.g. micro-combined heat and power (μ-CHP) and base load, which are certain to play a large role in worldwide decentralisation of power distribution and supply over the coming decades. Use of high-temperature SOFC technology within these systems is also a vital requirement in order to utilise fuel gases which are readily available in different areas of the world. Unfortunately, the limiting factor to the long-term commercialisation of SOFC systems is the redox instability, coking intolerance and sulphur poisoning of the state-of-the-art Ni-based cermet composite anode material. This research explores the ‘powder to power' development of alternative SOFC anode catalyst systems by impregnation of an A-site deficient La0.20Sr0.25Ca0.45TiO3 (LSCT[sub](A-)) anode ‘backbone' microstructure with coatings of ceria-based oxide ion conductors and metallic electrocatalyst particles, in order to create a SOFC anode which exhibits high redox stability, tolerance to sulphur poisoning and low voltage degradation rates under operating conditions. A 75 weight percent (wt. %) solids loading LSCT[sub](A-) ink, exhibiting ideal properties for screen printing of thick-film SOFC anode layers, was screen printed with 325 and 230 mesh counts (per inch) screens onto electrolyte supports. Sintering of anode layers between 1250 °C and 1350 °C for 1 to 2 hours indicated that microstructures printed with the 230 mesh screen provided a higher porosity and improved grain connectivity than those printed with the 325 mesh screen. Sintering anode layers at 1350 °C for 2 hours provided an anode microstructure with an advantageous combination of lateral grain connectivity and porosity, giving rise to an ‘effective' electrical conductivity of 17.5 S cm−1 at 850 °C. Impregnation of this optimised LSCT[sub](A-) anode scaffold with 13-16 wt. % (of the anode mass) Ce0.80Gd0.20O1.90 (CGO) and either Ni (5 wt. %), Pd, Pt, Rh or Ru (2-3 wt. %) and integration into SOFC resulted in achievement of Area Specific Resistances (ASR) of as low as 0.39 Ω cm−2, using thick (160 μm) 6ScSZ electrolytes. Durability testing of SOFC with Ni/CGO, Ni/CeO2, Pt/CGO and Rh/CGO impregnated LSCT[sub](A-) anodes was subsequently carried out in industrial button cell test rigs at HEXIS AG, Winterthur, Switzerland. Both Ni/CGO and Pt/CGO cells showed unacceptable levels of degradation (14.9% and 13.4%, respectively) during a ~960 hour period of operation, including redox/thermo/thermoredox cycling treatments. Significantly, by exchanging the CGO component for the CeO2 component in the SOFC containing Ni, the degradation over the same time period was almost halved. Most importantly, galvanostatic operation of the SOFC with a Rh/CGO impregnated anode for >3000 hours (without cycling treatments) resulted in an average voltage degradation rate of < 1.9% kh−1 which, to the author's knowledge, has not previously been reported for an alternative, SrTiO3-based anode material. Finally, transfer of the Rh/CGO impregnated LSCT[sub](A-) anode to industrial short stack (5 cells) scale at HEXIS AG revealed that operation in relevant conditions, with low gas flow rates, resulted in accelerated degradation of the Rh/CGO anode. During a 1451 hour period of galvanostatic operation, with redox cycles and overload treatments, a voltage degradation of 19.2% was observed. Redox cycling was noted to briefly recover performance of the stack before rapidly degrading back to the pre-redox cycling performance, though redox cycling does not affect this anode detrimentally. Instead, a more severe, underlying degradation mechanism, most likely caused by instability and agglomeration of Rh nanoparticles under operating conditions, is responsible for this observed degradation. Furthermore, exposure of the SOFC to fuel utilisations of >100% (overloading) had little effect on the Rh/CGO co-impregnated LSCT[sub](A-) anodes, giving a direct advantage over the standard HEXIS SOFC. Finally, elevated ohmic resistances caused by imperfect contacting with the Ni-based current collector materials highlighted that a new method of current collection must be developed for use with these anode materials.

Le titanate de baryum et de strontium (BaSrTiO3) est un matériau diélectrique de synthèse à forte permittivité possédant la propriété d'être accordable lorsqu'il est soumis à un champ électrique. Ceci est lié à sa structure cristalline à maille perovskite. Son intégration dans des dispositifs capacitifs est donc prometteuse pour l'industrie de la microélectronique. Il est déposé en couches minces par pulvérisation cathodique à partir de cibles pressées à froid au sein du laboratoire. L'étude de la croissance du matériau, dopé ou non, et de ses propriétés électriques à 100 khz ont permis d'envisager une montée en fréquence. Les évolutions de la permittivité diélectrique complexe et de l'accordabilité du matériau ont ainsi pu être étudiées sur un dispositif spécifique dans une gamme de fréquences allant de 1 à 60 ghz. L'utilisation d'un logiciel de simulation numérique par éléments finis (ELFI) dans le cadre de l'étude à haute fréquence permet de remonter aux caractéristiques propres du matériau, et ainsi d'interpréter plus finement les résultats issus de l'étude en basse fréquence. L'ensemble des connaissances acquises permet finalement de développer des dispositifs à capacité variable qui sont actuellement en cours d'élaboration au sein du laboratoire. / The barium and strontium titanate (BST) is a human made dielectric material with a high dielectric constant which is tunable once submitted to an electric field. This is due to its crystalline structure based on a perovkite mesh. Its integration into capacitive devices is thus fully promising for microelectronic industry. The material is deposited by RF magnetron sputtering from cold pressed targets made in the laboratory. Studying the growth of the material, doped or not, and its electrical properties at 100 kHz has allowed increasing frequency. The variations of the complex permittivity and tunability have thus been studied on a range of frequencies from 1 to 60 GHz. Using the numerical simulation software Elfi enables one to get a good estimation of the intrinsic properties of BST and a sharper explanation of the results obtained at low frequencies. This knowledge finally allows engineering in varactor devices, which is now in progress.

Microwave materials have been widely used in a variety of applications ranging from communication devices to military satellite services, and the study of materials properties at microwave frequencies and the development of functional microwave materials have always been among the most active areas in solid-state physics, materials science, electrical and electronic engineering. In recent years, the increasing requirements for the development of high speed, high frequency circuits and systems require complete understanding of the properties of materials function at microwave frequencies. Ferroelectric materials usually have high dielectric constant, and their dielectric properties are temperature and electric field dependent. The change in permittivity as a function of electric field is the key to a wide range of applications. Ferroelectric materials can be used to fabricate capacitors for electronic industry because of their high dielectric constant, and this is important in the trend toward miniaturization and high functionality of electronic products. The simple tunable passive component based on ferroelectric films is a varactor which can be made as a planar structure and used for electrically tunable microwave integrated circuits. It is an important task to sinter highly tunable and low loss ferroelectrics, fabricate and test the properties of microwave ferroelectric components. This thesis shows experimental results on growth, crystalline and microwave properties of Na0.5K0.5NbO3 (NKN), AgTa0.5Nb0.5O3 (ATN), Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 (BST) as well as AgTaO3 (ATO), and AgNbO3 (ANO) thin films. The films were grown by Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) and rf-magnetron sputtering techniques from stoichiometric high density ceramic NKN, ATN, ATO, ANO and BST targets onto LaAlO3 (LAO), Al2O3 (r-cut sapphire), Nd:YAlO3 single crystals and amorphous glass substrates. Advanced X-ray diffraction examinations showed NKN, ATN, BST films on LAO substrates grow epitaxially, whereas films on r-cut sapphire were found to be preferentially (00l) oriented. Coplanar waveguide 2 µm finger gap interdigital capacitor (CPWIDC) structures were fabricated by photolithography process and metal lift-off technique. On-wafer tests up to 40 GHz were performed to characterize microwave properties of the ferromagnetic film CPWIDC devices. The measurement setup is composed of network analyzer, probe station, and microwave G-S-G probes. External electric field was applied to planar capacitors to measure tunability. Original de-embedding technique has been developed to calculate capacitance, loss tan δ, and tunability of varactors from the measured S-parameters. NKN film interdigital capacitors on Nd:YAlO3 showed superior performance compared to ATN in the microwave range from 1 to 40 GHz. Within this range, the voltage tunability (40V, 200 kV/cm) was about 29%, loss tangent ~ 0.13, K-factor = tunability/tan δ from 152% @ 10GHz to 46% @ 40GHz. The ATN/sapphire CPWIDCs showed the lowest dispersion ~ 4.3% in whole frequency range from 1 to 40 GHz, voltage tunability 4.7% @ 20GHz and 200 kV/cm, lowest loss tangent ~ 0.068 @ 20GHz, K-factor = tunability/tan δ ranged from 124% @ 10GHz to 35% @ 40GHz. BST film CPWIDCs on sapphire showed frequency about 17%, the highest voltage tunability ~ 22.2%, loss tangent ~ 0.137 @ 20GHz, and K-factor = 281% @ 10GHz to 95% @ 40GHz. / QC 20100906

The present study describes the growth and characterization of pulsed laser ablated Bao.sSro.sTiOs (BST) thin films. Emphasis has been laid on the study of a plausible correlation between structure and property in order to optimize the processing parameters suitably for required application. An attempt has been made to understand the basic properties such as, origin of dielectric response, charge transfer under low and high-applied electric fields across the BST capacitor and finally the dielectric breakdown process. Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction on the application of ferroelectric thin films in microelectronic industry and its growth techniques. It also addresses the present issues involved in the introduction of BST as a capacitor material for high-density dynamic random access memories. Chapter 2 outlines the motivation for the present study and briefly outlines the research work involved. Chapter 3 describes the experimental procedure involved in the growth and characterization of BST thin films using pulsed laser ablation technique. Details include the setup design for PLD growth, material synthesis for the ceramic targets, deposition conditions used for thin film growth and basic characterizations methods used for study of the grown films. Chapter 4 describes the effect of systematic variation of deposition parameters on the physical and electrical properties of the grown BST films. The variation in processing conditions has been found to directly affect the film crystallinity, structure and morphology. The change observed in these physical properties may also be correlated to the observed electrical properties. This chapter summarizes the optimal deposition conditions required for growing BST thin films using a pulsed laser ablation technique. Microstructure of BST films has been categorized into two types: (a) Type I structure, with multi-grains through the film thickness, for amorphous as-grown films after high temperature annealing (exsitu crystallized), and (b) columnar structure (Type II) films, which were as-grown well-crystallized films, deposited at high temperatures. The ac electrical properties have been reviewed in detail in Chapter 5. Type I films showed a relatively lower value of dielectric constant (e ~ 426) than Type II films with dielectric constant around 567. The dissipation factors were around 0.02 and 0.01 for Type I and Type II films respectively. The dispersion in the frequency domain characteristics has been quantitatively explained using Jonscher's theory. Complex impedance spectroscopy employed showed significant grain boundary response in the case of multi-grained Type I films while negligible contribution from grain boundaries has been obtained in the case of columnar grained Type II BST films. The average relaxation time r obtained from the complex impedance plane plots show almost three orders higher values for Type I films. The obtained results suggest that in multi-grained samples, grain boundary play a major role in electrical properties. This has been explained in accordance to a model proposed on the basis of depleted grains in the case of Type I films where the grain sizes are smaller than the grain boundary depletion width. Chapter 6 describes the dc leakage properties of the grown BST thin films and the influence of microstructure on the leakage properties. It was evident from the analysis of the graph of leakage current against measurement temperature, that, the observed leakage behavior in BST films, can not be attributed to a single charge transport mechanism. For Type I films, the Arrhenius plot of the leakage current density with 1000/T exhibits different regions with activation energy values in the range of 0.5 and 2.73 for low fields (2.5kV/cm). The activation energy changes over to 1.28 eV at high fields (170 kV/cm). The obtained values agree well with that obtained from the ac measurements, thus implying a similarity in the origin of the transport process. The activation energy value in the range of 0.5 eV is attributed to the electrode/film Schottky barrier, while the value in the range of 2.73 eV is due to deep trap levels originating from Ti+3 centers. The value in the range of 1.28 eV has been attributed to oxygen vacancy motion. Similar results have been obtained from the Arrhenius plot of the leakage current for Type II films. In this case, only two different activation energy values can be identified in the measured temperature and applied electric field range. At low fields the activation energy value was around 0.38 eV while at high fields the value was around 1.06 eV. These values have been identified to be originating from the electrode/film Schottky barrier and oxygen vacancy motion respectively. Thus a complete picture of the charge transport process in the case of BST thin film may be summarized as comprising of both electronic motion as well as contribution from oxygen vacancy motion. The effect of electrical stress on the capacitance-voltage (C-V) and the leakage current has been analyzed in Chapter 7. From the change in the zero bias capacitance after repeated electron injection through the films the values of the electronic capture cross-section and the total trap density for Type I and II films have been estimated. The results showed higher values for Type I film in comparison to Type II films. The difference has been attributed to the presence of grain boundaries and a different interface in the case of Type I films when compared to Type II films where the absence of grain boundaries is reflected in the columnar microstructure. A study of the time-dependent-dielectric-breakdown (TDDB) characteristics under high fields for Type I and Type II films showed higher endurance for Type I film. On the other hand space-charge-transient characteristics have been observed in the case of Type II films at elevated temperature of measurement. Mobility and activation energy values extracted from the transient characteristics are found to be in the range of 1 x 10~12 cm2 /V-sec and 0.73 eV respectively, suggesting a very slow charge transport process, which has been attributed to the motion of oxygen vacancies. An overall effect of electrical stress suggested that oxygen vacancy motion can be related to the observed resistance degradation and TDDB, which has been further enhanced by the combination of high temperature and high electric fields. Chapter 8 deals with the effect of intentional doping in the BST films. The doping includes Al at the Ti-site, Nb in the Ti-site and La at the Ba/Sr-site. The effect of doping was observed both on the structure and electrical properties of the BST films. Acceptor doping of 0.1 atomic 7c Al was found to decrease the dielectric constant as well as the leakage current. For higher concentration of acceptor-dopant, the leakage current was found to increase while showing space-charge-transient in the TDDB characteristics, again suggesting the effect of increased concentration of oxygen vacancies. Donor doping using 2 atomic % La and Xb significantly improved the leakage as well as the TDDB characteristics by reducing the concentration of oxygen vacancies. A further procedure using graded donor doping in the BST films exhibits even better leakage and TDDB properties. An unconventional, graded doping of donor cations has been carried out to observe the impact on leakage behavior, in particular. The leakage current measured for a graded La-doped BST film show almost six orders of lower leakage current in comparison to undoped BST films, while endurance towards breakdown has been observed to increase many-fold. Chapter 9 highlights the main findings of the work reported in this thesis and lists suggestions for future work, to explore new vistas ahead.

Σύνθετα που ενσωματώνουν σιδηροηλεκτρικά και πιεζοηλεκτρικά νανοσωματίδια, ομοιογενώς διεσπαρμένα μέσα σε μήτρα άμορφου πολυμερούς, αντιπροσωπεύουν μια νέα κατηγορία υλικών. Τα νανοδιηλεκτρικά σύνθετα ανήκουν σε ένα νέο τύπο υλικών που παρασκευάζονται για βελτιωμένες επιδόσεις, σαν διηλεκτρικά και ηλεκτρικοί μονωτές. Ορισμένα κεραμικά υλικά μπορούν να επιλεγούν και να αναμιχθούν με πολυμερή για να επιτευχθεί συνέργια μεταξύ της υψηλής διηλεκτρικής αντοχής των πολυμερών και της υψηλή διηλεκτρικής σταθεράς των κεραμικών. Τα εν λόγω συστήματα μπορούν να χρησιμοποιηθούν σε πολλές εφαρμογές, όπως σε ολοκληρωμένους πυκνωτές αποσύζευξης, ακουστικούς αισθητήρες εκπομπής, επιταχυνσιόμετρα γωνιακής επιτάχυνσης και ελεγκτές ρεύματος διαρροής, καθώς και σε στρατιωτικούς εξοπλισμούς και εφαρμογές στις μεταφορές. Έχει διαπιστωθεί πως τα νανοσύνθετα παρουσιάζουν βελτιωμένες ιδιότητες, αλλά όχι πλήρως κατανοητές, συγκριτικά με τα μικροσύνθετα. Επιπλέον, μελέτες δείχνουν ενδιαφέρουσες συμπεριφορές, όταν πρόκειται για πολύ χαμηλές περιεκτικότητες σε νανοσωματίδια. Στην παρούσα μελέτη, νανοσύνθετα εποξειδικής ρητίνης και κεραμικών νανοσωματιδίων BaSrTiO3 (μεικτό οξείδιο τιτανικού στροντίου βαρίου, BST) (<100 nm), παρασκευάστηκαν με διαδικασία ανάμειξης σε ένα ευρύ φάσμα συγκεντρώσεων, με σκοπό να μελετηθεί η επίδραση της πολύ χαμηλής (ή πολύ υψηλής) περιεκτικότητας στα χαρακτηριστικά του συστήματος. Οι διηλεκτρικές ιδιότητες και τα φαινόμενα χαλάρωσης μελετήθηκαν με τη βοήθεια της διηλεκτρικής φασματοσκοπίας (BDS) στο εύρος θερμοκρασιών από 30 oC έως 160 oC και συχνοτήτων 10-1 Hz έως 107 Hz. Ο μορφολογικός χαρακτηρισμός έγινε μέσω της ηλεκτρονικής μικροσκοπίας σάρωσης (SEM) και διαπιστώθηκε πως η νανοδιασπορά των εγκλεισμάτων είναι επιτυχής. Ο δομικός χαρακτηρισμός, των δοκιμίων αλλά και των σωματιδίων BaSrTiO3, έγινε μέσω περίθλασης ακτίνων-Χ (XRD) και διαπιστώθηκε πως τα φάσματα έρχονται σε συμφωνία με τη σχετική βιβλιογραφία. Από την ανάλυση των αποτελεσμάτων της διηλεκτρικής φασματοσκοπίας καταγράφονται τρεις διηλεκτρικές χαλαρώσεις, που αποδίδονται με φθίνουσα σειρά των χρόνων χαλάρωσης, στη διεπιφανειακή πόλωση, την μετάπτωση από την υαλώδη στην ελαστομερική φάση της μήτρας (α-χαλάρωση) και σε επαναδιευθετήσεις πολικών πλευρικών ομάδων της κύριας πολυμερικής αλυσίδας (β-χαλάρωση). Η εξέταση της επίδρασης της περιεκτικότητας σε νανοεγκλέισματα, στη διηλεκτρική απόκριση των σύνθετων αποκαλύπτει μη-αναμενόμενες συμπεριφορές, σε χαμηλές (αλλά και υψηλές) περιεκτικότητες. Πιο συγκεκριμένα στις χαμηλές περιεκτικότητες εμφανίζονται φαινόμενα ακινητοποίησης των μακροαλυσίδων και επακόλουθα των διπόλων, με αποτέλεσμα τη μείωση της διαπερατότητας και την αύξηση της θερμοκρασίας υαλώδους μετάπτωσης του συστήματος. Αντίστοιχα σε υψηλές περιεκτικότητες υπάρχει εκ νέου αύξηση της θερμοκρασίας υαλώδους μετάπτωσης, λόγω περιορισμένης κινητικότητας των διπόλων. Συμπερασματικά, θεωρείται πως υπάρχουν τρεις ‘’ζώνες περιεκτικοτήτων’’ που προσδίδουν διαφορετικά χαρακτηριστικά στη διηλεκτρική συμπεριφορά του συστήματος, μέσω της ρύθμισης των αλληλεπιδράσεων ρητίνης-εγκλεισμάτων. / Ceramic–polymer composites incorporating ferroelectric and piezoelectric crystal nanoparticles, homogeneously dispersed within an amorphous polymer matrix represent a novel class of materials. Nanodielectric composites belong to a new type of engineering materials suitable for improved performance as dielectrics and electrical insulators. Certain ceramic materials can be selected to be blended with polymers providing synergy between the high breakdown strength of polymers and the high permittivity of ceramic materials. These type of material systems can be used in plenty applications such as integrated decoupling capacitors, acoustic emission sensors, angular acceleration accelerometers, smart skins and leakage current controllers, as well as in military equipment and transport applications. It has been found that nanocomposites exhibit enhanced properties, yet not fully understandable, comparably to microcomposites. Furthermore, literature demonstrates some interesting dielectric behaviors when filler’s concentration comes to very low nanoparticle loadings. In the present study, nanocomposites of epoxy resin and ceramic BaSrTiO3 (Barium-Strontium Titanate, BST) nanoparticles (<100 nm), were prepared with a mixing procedure in a wide range of nanofiller concentrations, aiming to investigate the impact of very low (or very high) loadings on the system’s properties. The dielectric properties and the related relaxation phenomena were studied by means of Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy (BDS) in the temperature range from 30 oC to 160 oC and frequency range from 10-1 Hz to 107 Hz. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was employed in order to examine the morphology of the produced specimens. The dispersion of nanoinclusions can be considered as satisfactory. Structural characterization of the systems as well as of the BaSrTiO3 nanopowder was examined via x-ray diffraction (XRD). Obtained results are in accordance with literature. Three dielectric relaxation processes were detected form the analysis of the dielectric spectra. They are attributed, with descending order of relaxation time, to interfacial polarization, glass to rubber transition of the polymer matrix (α-relaxation), and re-arrangement of polar side groups of the main macromolecular chain (β-relaxation). The influence of the nanoparticles content upon the dielectric response of the composites, reveal unexpected behaviours at low and high filler loading. In particular, effects of immobilization/entanglement of macromolecular chains and subsequently of dipoles, resulting to a decrease of the permittivity values and enhancement of the glass to rubber transition temperature of the systems, were ascertained. At the opposite edge, at high filler loading, an increase of glass to rubber transition temperature was also found, due to the limited mobility of the chains and dipoles. Concluding, the existence of three “zones of filler content” is assumed, providing different characteristics in the dielectric response of the systems, because of the tunable polymer-inclusion interactions.