Mn‐ and Mn/Cu‐doped PIN‐PMN‐PT piezoelectric ceramics for high‐power transducers

The effects of acceptor doping with manganese as either MnO2 or MnNb2O6 (MnN) with CuO on the dielectric, ferroelectric, and piezoelectric properties of PIN‐PMN‐PT ceramics were investigated. The 2% MnNb2O6‐doped PIN‐PMN‐PT (6Pb(Mn1/3Nb2/3)O3‐25Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3‐34Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3‐35PbTiO3) ceramics possessed hard properties such as high coercive field (EC) of 11.7 kV/cm, low dielectric loss (tan δ) of 0.7%, and high electromechanical quality factor (QM) of 1011. These properties were diminished in MnO2‐doped ceramics because of lower oxygen vacancy defect concentration, and exaggerated grain growth resulted in >20 µm grain size. Co‐doping with 2 mol% MnNb2O6 and 0.5 mol% CuO retained hardened properties such as high EC of 9.6 kV/cm, low tan δ of 0.6%, and high QM of 1029. MnNb2O6‐doped and MnNb2O6 + Cu co‐doped ceramics display excellent figures of merit for resonance and off‐resonance applications as well as high energy conversion efficiencies which make them promising candidates for high‐power transducer elements.