The figure-of-merits of ferroelectrics for transducer applications are their electromechanical coupling factor and the operable temperature range. Relaxor-PbTiO3 ferroelectric crystals show a much improved electromechanical coupling factor k33 (88~93%) compared to their ceramic counterparts (65~78%) by taking advantage of the strong anisotropy of crystals. However, only a few relaxor-PbTiO3 systems, for example Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3-Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3, can be grown into single crystals, whose operable temperature range is limited by their rhombohedral-tetragonal phase transition temperatures (Trt: 60~120 °C). Here, we develop a templated grain-growth approach to fabricate <001>-textured Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3-Pb(Sc1/2Nb1/2)O3-PbTiO3 (PIN-PSN-PT) ceramics that contain a large amount of the refractory component Sc2O3, which has the ability to increase the Trt of the system. The high k33 of 85~89% and the greatly increased Trt 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.
Relaxor-lead titanate (PbTiO
3
) crystals, which exhibit extremely high piezoelectricity, are believed to possess high electro-optic (EO) coefficients. However, the optical transparency of relaxor-PbTiO
3
crystals is severely reduced as a result of light scattering and reflection by domain walls, limiting electro-optic applications. Through synergistic design of a ferroelectric phase, crystal orientation, and poling technique, we successfully removed all light-scattering domain walls and achieved an extremely high transmittance of 99.6% in antireflection film–coated crystals, with an ultrahigh EO coefficient
r
33
of 900 picometers per volt (pm V
−1
), >30 times as high as that of conventionally used EO crystals. Using these crystals, we fabricated ultracompact EO Q-switches that require very low driving voltages, with superior performance to that of commercial Q-switches. Development of these materials is important for the portability and low driving voltage of EO devices.
Compared with the state-of-the-art Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 ceramics, relaxor-PbTiO3 (PT) based ferroelectric single crystals possess much higher piezoelectricity, thus receiving considerable attention from the ferroelectric community. Recently, it was found that the alternating current electric field poling (AC-poling) could further improve the piezoelectricity of [001]-poled rhombohedral (R) relaxor-PT single crystals. In this work, we investigated the domain structures and electromechanical properties of alternating current electric field poled (AC-poled) relaxor ferroelectric Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3–Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–PbTiO3 (PIN–PMN–PT) crystals with different orientations and phase structures, including [001]-oriented R PIN–PMN–PT (23/47/30), [011]-oriented R PIN–PMN–PT (23/47/30), and [001]-oriented monoclinic (MC) PIN–PMN–PT (22/44/34) single crystals. We found that the piezoelectric coefficient (d33), free dielectric permittivity (ɛ33T/ɛ0), and clamped dielectric permittivity (ɛ33S/ɛ0) for AC-poled [001]-oriented R PIN–PMN–PT (23/47/30) crystals were improved by 24.4%, 22.6%, and 8.5%, respectively, when compared with the direct current electric field poled (DC-poled) counterparts. This phenomenon is attributed to the increase of domain size according to the observations from polarized light microscopy. Nevertheless, for [011]-poled R PIN–PMN–PT and [001]-poled MC PIN–PMN–PT crystals, the dielectric permittivities and piezoelectric coefficients were decreased a bit by AC-poling, being attributed to the depolarization phenomenon caused by the AC electric field. This work demonstrates that impacts of AC-poling on the properties of ferroelectrics are highly related to the orientation and phase of ferroelectric crystals.
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