Roles of Li and Ta in Pb-free piezoelectric (Na,K)NbO3 ceramics

Piezoelectric coefficient (d33) of (Na,K)NbO3 (NKN) is enhanced not only at its morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) composition but also enhanced at its polymorphic phase transition (PPT) temperature between orthorhombic and tetragonal phases (TO-T). Thus, for NKN-based ceramics, even higher d33 could be obtained if both MPB and PPT are simultaneously optimized. This temperature as well as composition dependence of piezoelectric properties of NKN-based ceramics requires a systematic approach that differentiates factors for MPB and PPT. In this paper, the roles of Li and Ta known to affect d33 and TO-T were identified in relation with lattice parameters.