Piezoelectric properties and temperature stability of Mn-doped Pb(Mg 1/3 Nb 2/3 )-PbZrO 3 -PbTiO 3 textured ceramics

In this letter, we report the electromechanical properties of textured 0.4Pb(Mg 1/3 Nb 2/3 )O 3 -0.25PbZrO 3 -0.35PbTiO 3 (PMN-PZT) composition which has relatively high rhombohedral to tetragonal (R-T) transition temperature ( T R-T of 160°C) and Curie temperature ( T C of 234°C) and explore the effect of Mn-doping on this composition. It was found that MnO 2 -doped textured PMN-PZT ceramics with 5vol.% BaTiO 3 template (T-5BT) exhibited inferior temperature stability. The coupling factor ( k 31 ) of T-5BT ceramic started to degrade from 75°C while the random counterpart showed a very stable tendency up to 180°C. This degradation was associated with the "interface region" formed in the vicinity of BT template. MnO 2 doped PMN-PZT ceramics textured with 3vol.% BT and subsequently poled at 140°C (T-3BT140) exhibited very stable and high k 31 (>0.53) in a wide temperature range from room temperature to 130°C through reduction in the interface region volume. Further, the T-3BT140 ceramic exhibited excellent hard and soft combinatory piezoelectric properties of d 33 =720 pC/N, k 31 =0.53, Q m =403, tan δ =0.3% which are very promising for high power and magnetoelectric applications.