Controlling densification and grain growth during sintering is vital to optimizing the functionality of electroceramics. Here we show that Spark Plasma Texturing (SPT) - a pressure-driven, edge-free variant of spark plasma sintering - allows high densification and effective grain growth control in tunable ferroelectric Ba 0.6 Sr 0.4 TiO 3 . We investigate the SPT processing parameters and their influence on the final properties of BST ceramics, systematically varying the pre-sintering route and the onset temperature of pressure application. All SPT-processed ceramics reach near-theoretical densities (>98.6%) and ultrafine grains (0.44-0.76 µm). The most effective configuration, i.e., conventionally pre-sintered pellets subjected to pressure from room temperature, produces a dense, homogeneous microstructure with enhanced dielectric permittivity, tunability, and k-factor, while minimizing losses. These findings establish SPT as a powerful pathway for mechanically assisted microstructural engineering, offering new opportunities to design high-performance tunable dielectrics, with reduced grain growth and tailored dielectric properties, for adaptive microwave and electronic devices.
Ribeiro et al. (Sun,) studied this question.