Textured ferroelectric ceramics with high electromechanical coupling factors over a broad temperature range

The figure-of-merits of ferroelectrics for transducer applications are their electromechanical coupling factor and the operable temperature range. Relaxor-PbTiO ferroelectric crystals show a much improved electromechanical coupling factor k (88~93%) compared to their ceramic counterparts (65~78%) by taking advantage of the strong anisotropy of crystals. However, only a few relaxor-PbTiO systems, for example Pb(In Nb )O -Pb(Mg Nb )O -PbTiO , can be grown into single crystals, whose operable temperature range is limited by their rhombohedral-tetragonal phase transition temperatures (T : 60~120 °C). Here, we develop a templated grain-growth approach to fabricate <001>-textured Pb(In Nb )O -Pb(Sc Nb )O -PbTiO (PIN-PSN-PT) ceramics that contain a large amount of the refractory component Sc O , which has the ability to increase the T of the system. The high k of 85~89% and the greatly increased T 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. 3 33 3 1/2 1/2 3 1/3 2/3 3 3 rt 1/2 1/2 3 1/2 1/2 3 3 2 3 rt 33 rt