Textured ferroelectric ceramics with high electromechanical coupling factors over a broad temperature range.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 33658525.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-21673-8 and PMC identifier 7977148.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The figure-of-merits of ferroelectrics for transducer applications are their electromechanical coupling factor and the operable temperature range. Relaxor-PbTiO<sub>3</sub> ferroelectric crystals show a much improved electromechanical coupling factor k<sub>33</sub> (88~93%) compared to their ceramic counterparts (65~78%) by taking advantage of the strong anisotropy of crystals. However, only a few relaxor-PbTiO<sub>3</sub> systems, for example Pb(In<sub>1/2</sub>Nb<sub>1/2</sub>)O<sub>3</sub>-Pb(Mg<sub>1/3</sub>Nb<sub>2/3</sub>)O<sub>3</sub>-PbTiO<sub>3</sub>, can be grown into single crystals, whose operable temperature range is limited by their rhombohedral-tetragonal phase transition temperatures (T<sub>rt</sub>: 60~120 °C). Here, we develop a templated grain-growth approach to fabricate <001>-textured Pb(In<sub>1/2</sub>Nb<sub>1/2</sub>)O<sub>3</sub>-Pb(Sc<sub>1/2</sub>Nb<sub>1/2</sub>)O<sub>3</sub>-PbTiO<sub>3</sub> (PIN-PSN-PT) ceramics that contain a large amount of the refractory component Sc<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>, which has the ability to increase the T<sub>rt</sub> of the system. The high k<sub>33</sub> of 85~89% and the greatly increased T<sub>rt</sub> of 160~200 °C are simultaneously achieved in the textured PIN-PSN-PT ceramics. The above merits will make textured PIN-PSN-PT ceramics an alternative to single crystals, benefiting the development of numerous advanced piezoelectric devices.