Opto-electrical Behavior of Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3–Pb0.97La0.03(Zr,Ti)O3 Transparent Ceramics with Varying Defect Structure

Abstract

We report correlation between the electromechanical, ferroelectric, optical and opto-electric behavior in Pb(Zn 1/3 Nb 2/3 )O 3 -Pb 0.97 La 0.03 (Zr,Ti)O 3 transparent ceramics. Optical interaction during current-voltage (I-V) measurements enhanced the current output and revealed its strong dependence on wavelength and power of the impinging radiation. Piezoresponse force microscopy revealed that the improved characteristics at low stoichiometric excess of various elements were related to nano-sized stripe domains. Raman analysis indicated the presence of short-range clusters with rhombohedral-tetragonal phase distributed at much above the Curie temperature. The results reveal the potential of these ceramics in wireless opto-electric devices operating over a wide-range of wavelengths and temperatures. These classes of ceramics have successfully demonstrated in literature for use in pyroelectric generators and UV light energy harvesting, piezoelectric transformers.