Electric field dependence of piezoelectric properties for rhombohedral 0.955Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3– 0.045PbTiO3 single crystals

The electric field dependence of the piezoelectric properties of rhombohedral 0.955Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3–0.045PbTiO3 crystals were investigated as a function of orientation with respect to the prototypic (cubic) axes. For 〈111〉 oriented fields, depolarization and subsequent domain reorientation resulted in an apparent maximum in the piezoelectric coefficients occurring at ∼5 kV/cm, followed by nonhysteretic dij saturation, indicating a single domain state under bias. By extrapolation, single domain values for the piezoelectric coefficients d33 and d31 were determined to be 125 and −35 pC/N, respectively. The hydrostatic piezoelectric coefficient dh for single domain crystals was calculated to be ∼55 pC/N, coincident with the experimentally determined values under hydrostatic pressure. For 〈001〉 oriented fields, piezoelectric coefficients d33〈001〉 and d31〈001〉 as high as 2250 and −1000 pC/N were determined, respectively. Although a high value of dh〈001〉 (∼250 pC/N) was expected, the experimentally determined value was only ∼50 pC/N. A change of polar vector within the crystal lattice was discussed in relation to the volume strain associated with an E-field induced phase transition and the possible origin of the discrepancy in hydrostatic dh values.