Intrinsic and extrinsic nature of the giant piezoelectric effect in the initial poling of PMN-PT

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.5.L120601

Authors: A. G. A. Nisbet (Diamond Light Source) , F. Fabrizi (Diamond Light Source) , S. C. Vecchini (National Physical Laboratory) , M. Stewart (National Physical Laboratory) , M. G. Cain (National Physical Laboratory) , T. Hase (University of Warwick) , P. Finkel (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory) , S. Grover (University of Reading) , R. Grau-Crespo (University of Reading) , S. P. Collins (Diamond Light Source)
Co-authored by industrial partner: No

Type: Journal Paper
Journal: Physical Review Materials , VOL 5

State: Published (Approved)
Published: December 2021
Diamond Proposal Number(s): 10248

Abstract: Demonstrating both the intrinsic and extrinsic nature of the giant piezoelectric effect (GPE) in complex solid solutions, near the morphotropic phase boundary, has been extremely challenging until now, because such materials exhibit multiple phases on the order of tens of microns across, meaning important information is lost due to averaging when using established high resolution diffraction techniques to extract three dimensional structural information. We have used a different approach proposed by Nisbet et al. [Acta Crystallogr. Sect. A 71, 20 (2015)], which has been adapted to differentiate between spatially adjacent phases and simultaneously track the evolution of those phases in response to electric fields. As a result, we have identified three environment specific GPEs. The first of these is a GPE which is an order of magnitude greater than previously reported for a given change in field. This is observed during a tetragonal-monoclinic transition in a multiphasic environment. A secondary, large GPE is observed in the neighboring, nontransitioning, monoclinic phase due to stress biasing, and a more typical GPE is observed when the system becomes monophasic. Our results demonstrate the simultaneous and complex interplay of intrinsic and extrinsic factors contributing to the GPE which is likely to have implications for device manufacture and miniaturization.

Journal Keywords: Electric polarization; Ferroelectricity; Piezoelectricity; Stress

Diamond Keywords: Piezoelectricity

Subject Areas: Physics, Materials


Instruments: I16-Materials and Magnetism

Added On: 27/12/2021 16:35

Discipline Tags:

Physics Electronics Energy Materials Materials Science

Technical Tags:

Diffraction