Crystal structure, chemical bonding and infrared reflectivity of microwave dielectric SrIn2O4 ceramics

In this work, the orthorhombic structured SrIn2O4 ceramics with a space group Pnam were synthesized by a solid-state reaction method. A high relative density (96.5%) coupled with excellent microwave dielectric properties (εr ∼ 12.3, Q × f = 96,900 GHz, τf ∼ −61.6 ppm/°C) were obtained as sintered 1300 °C for 4 h. The bond valence analysis demonstrates that the large sized cation Sr2+ exhibits a compressed state, while the In3+ exhibits a weaken rattling effect. The P-V-L chemical bond theory analysis indicates that the In-O bonds play a key role in affecting the dielectric loss. The thermally conductivity activation energy Edc (0.94 eV) of SrIn2O4 was obtained by the dielectric spectroscopy, indicating that the Edc was contributed to the double ionized oxygen vacancies. Furthermore, the intrinsic dielectric properties (εr ∼ 11.2, Q × f = 148,900 GHz) of SrIn2O4 were obtained by infrared reflectivity spectroscopy.