Highly Transparent Eu-Doped 0.72PMN-0.28PT Ceramics with Excellent Piezoelectricity

The 0.975­[0.72Pb­(Mg1/3Nb2/3)­O3-0.28PbTiO3]-0.025Eu2O3 ceramics were prepared by a two-step sintering process including oxygen sintering and hot-pressing. An ultrahigh piezoelectric charge coefficient of 1400 pC/N and a superior optical transmittance up to 68% were simultaneously achieved. The underlying mechanism was discussed from a microstructural perspective, where the watermark domain configuration with a small domain size is responsible for the high optical transmission, while the large remanent polarization and dielectric constant and the introduced tetragonal phase with a parallel stripe domain structure are believed to synergistically contribute to the high piezoelectric coefficients. This work demonstrates that the rare-earth dopant in the PMN-PT ceramic system is conducive to enhanced transparency and piezoelectricity.