Piezoelectric Loss Performance in Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3--PbTiO3 Single Crystals

Lead magnesium niobate--lead titanate (PMN--PT) single crystals are a suitable replacement over conventional PZT-based ceramics in transducer applications because of their large electromechanical coupling factors ($k > 0.90$) and piezoelectric constants ($d > 1000$ pC/N). For single crystals, it is possible to modify the performance by suitable selection of the orientation, and appropriate composition changes or doping can be utilized to improve the mechanical quality factor $Q_{\text{m}}$. In this research, we report the piezoelectric loss performance in PMN--PT single crystals as a function of orientation, doping and vibration mode. The loss characteristics are based on mechanical quality factor $Q_{\text{m}}$ as well as the $Q$ values at resonance ($Q_{\text{A}}$) and anti-resonance ($Q_{\text{B}}$). The Mn-doping resulted in almost twice the enhancement of the mechanical quality factor $Q_{\text{m}}$ and the maximum vibration velocity in comparison with the undoped samples.