Ferroelastic domain structure and phase transition in single-crystalline [PbZn_1/3Nb_2/3O₃]_1-x[PbTiO₃]_x observed via in situ x-ray microbeam

Journal Article · Fri Nov 10 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Journal of the European Ceramic Society

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2017.11.021· OSTI ID:1454497

Li, Tao ^[1]; Du, Zehui ^[2]; Tamura, Nobumichi ^[3]; Ye, Mao ^[1]; Inguva, Saikumar ^[4]; Lu, Wei ^[5]; Zeng, Xierong ^[6]; Ke, Shanming ^[4]; Huang, Haitao ^[7]

---

1. Shenzhen Univ. (China). College of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen Key Lab. of Special Functional Materials, Shenzhen Engineering Lab. for Advanced Technology of Ceramics and Key Lab. of Optoelectronic Devices and Systems of Ministry of Education and Guangdong Province; Hong Kong Polytechnic Univ. (China). Dept. of Applied Physics and Materials Research Center
2. Nanyang Technological Univ. (Singapore). Temasek Lab.
3. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Advanced Light Source (ALS)
4. Shenzhen Univ. (China). College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen Key Lab. of Special Functional Materials and Shenzhen Engineering Lab. for Advanced Technology of Ceramics
5. Hong Kong Polytechnic Univ. (China). Univ. Research Facility in Materials Characterization and Device Fabrication
6. Shenzhen Univ. (China). College of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen Key Lab. of Special Functional Materials, Shenzhen Engineering Lab. for Advanced Technology of Ceramics and Key Lab. of Optoelectronic Devices and Systems of Ministry of Education and Guangdong Province
7. Hong Kong Polytechnic Univ. (China). Dept. of Applied Physics and Materials Research Center

(1-x)Pb(Zn_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃-xPbTiO₃ ((1-x)PZN-xPT in short) is one of the most important piezoelectric materials. In this study, we extensively investigated (1-x)PZN-xPT (x = 0.07–0.11) ferroelectric single crystals using in-situ synchrotron μXRD, complemented by TEM and PFM, to correlate microstructures with phase transitions. The results reveal that (i) at 25°C, the equilibrium state of (1-x)PZN-xPT is a metastable orthorhombic phase for x = 0.07 and 0.08, while it shows coexistence of orthorhombic and tetragonal phases for x = 0.09 and x = 0.11, with all ferroelectric phases accompanied by ferroelastic domains; (ii) upon heating, the phase transformation in x = 0.07 is Orthorhombic → Monoclinic → Tetragonal → Cubic. The coexistence of ferroelectric tetragonal and paraelectric cubic phases was in-situ observed in x = 0.08 above Curie temperature (T_C), and (iii) phase transition can be explained by the evolution of the ferroelectric and ferroelastic domains. These results disclose that (1-x)PZN-xPT are in an unstable regime, which is possible factor for its anomalous dielectric response and high piezoelectric coefficient.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities Division; Research Grants Council (RGC) (China); International Science and Technology Cooperation Programme (ISTCP) (China); ASTRI Science and Technology Research (Shenzhen) Company Limited (China); Chinese Postdoctoral Science Foundation; National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231; PolyU152665/16E; 1-ZVGH; 2015DFH10200; JCYJ20160422102802301; KQJSCX2016022619562452; 2015M572356; 11604214
• OSTI ID: 1454497
• Journal Information: Journal of the European Ceramic Society, Vol. 38, Issue 4; Related Information: © 2017 Elsevier Ltd; ISSN 0955-2219
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE