Simultaneously achieving giant piezoelectricity and record coercive field enhancement in relaxor-based ferroelectric crystals.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 35508534.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-022-29962-6 and PMC identifier 9068613.
- 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
A large coercive field (E<sub>C</sub>) and ultrahigh piezoelectricity are essential for ferroelectrics used in high-drive electromechanical applications. The discovery of relaxor-PbTiO<sub>3</sub> crystals is a recent breakthrough; they currently afford the highest piezoelectricity, but usually with a low E<sub>C</sub>. Such performance deterioration occurs because high piezoelectricity is interlinked with an easy polarization rotation, subsequently favoring a dipole switch under small fields. Therefore, the search for ferroelectrics with both a large E<sub>C</sub> and ultrahigh piezoelectricity has become an imminent challenge. Herein, ternary Pb(Sc<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> crystals are reported, wherein the dispersed local heterogeneity comprises abundant tetragonal phases, affording a E<sub>C</sub> of 8.2 kV/cm (greater than that of Pb(Mg<sub>1/3</sub>Nb<sub>2/3</sub>)O<sub>3</sub>-PbTiO<sub>3</sub> by a factor of three) and ultrahigh piezoelectricity (d<sub>33</sub> = 2630 pC/N; d<sub>15</sub> = 490 pC/N). The observed E<sub>C</sub> enhancement is the largest reported for ultrahigh-piezoelectric materials, providing a simple, practical, and universal route for improving functionalities in ferroelectrics with an atomic-level understanding.