Abstract

In this work, both crystallographic texture and doping engineering strategies were integrated to develop relaxor-PbTiO3 (PT) based ternary ferroelectric ceramics with enhanced texture evolution and superior electromechanical properties. CuO-doped Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3-Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 (PIN-PMN-PT) piezoelectric ceramics with [001]c texture fraction ≥97% were synthesized by templated grain growth. The addition of CuO significantly promotes densification and oriented grain growth in the templated ceramics, leading to full texture development at dramatically reduced times and temperatures. Moreover, the CuO dopant remarkably enhances the piezoelectric properties of the textured ceramics while maintaining high phase transition temperatures and large coercive fields. Doping 0.125 wt. % CuO yields the electromechanical properties of d33 = 927 pC/N, d33* = 1510 pm/V, g33 = 43.2 × 10−3 Vm/N, Kp = 0.87, Ec=8.8 kV/cm, and tan δ = 1.3%, which are the best values reported so far in PIN-PMN-PT based ceramics. The high piezoelectric coefficient is mainly from the reversible piezoelectric response, with the irreversible contribution being on the order of 13.1%. We believe that this work not only facilitates closing the performance gap between ceramics and single crystals but also can expand relaxor-PT based piezoelectric application fields.

The effects of acceptor doping with manganese as either MnO2 or MnNb2O6 (MnN) with CuO on the dielectric, ferroelectric, and piezoelectric properties of PIN‐PMN‐PT ceramics were investigated. The 2% MnNb2O6‐doped PIN‐PMN‐PT (6Pb(Mn1/3Nb2/3)O3‐25Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3‐34Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3‐35PbTiO3) ceramics possessed hard properties such as high coercive field (EC) of 11.7 kV/cm, low dielectric loss (tan δ) of 0.7%, and high electromechanical quality factor (QM) of 1011. These properties were diminished in MnO2‐doped ceramics because of lower oxygen vacancy defect concentration, and exaggerated grain growth resulted in >20 µm grain size. Co‐doping with 2 mol% MnNb2O6 and 0.5 mol% CuO retained hardened properties such as high EC of 9.6 kV/cm, low tan δ of 0.6%, and high QM of 1029. MnNb2O6‐doped and MnNb2O6 + Cu co‐doped ceramics display excellent figures of merit for resonance and off‐resonance applications as well as high energy conversion efficiencies which make them promising candidates for high‐power transducer elements.