Enhancement of high dielectric constant in CaCu₃Ti₄O₁₂/RuO₂ composites in the vicinity of the percolation threshold

We observe the large enhancement in the dielectric response near the percolation threshold in a composite nanoparticle system consisting of metallic RuO$_2$ grains embedded into dielectric CaCu$_3$Ti$_4$O$_1$$_2$ (CCTO) matrix and annealed at 1100OC. To understand the nature of the dielectric response, we compare CCTO fabricated by two different techniques, solid state process (CCTO$_S$$_S$) and sol-gel process (CCTO$_S$$_G$) with the intrinsic dielectric constant in both cases found to be on the order of 10$^3$-10$^4$ at 10 kHz. For RuO$_2$/CCTO$_S$$_S$ and RuO$_2$/CCTO$_S$$_G$ composites and composites, an increase of the dielectric constant by factors of 7 and 5 respectively is observed in the vicinity of the percolation threshold of about 0.1, with moderate losses at room temperature. Scanning electron microscopy and Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy indicate that the difference in the size of the effect may arise from the microstructure of the copper oxide enriched grain boundaries in the host CCTO.