Templated Grain Growth of <001> Textured PMN‐28PT Using SrTiO ₃ Templates

Highly textured PMN‐28PT (0.72Pb(Mg 1/3 Nb 2/3 )O 3 –0.28PbTiO 3 ) ceramics were produced by templated grain growth on <001> oriented platelet‐shaped SrTiO 3 template particles with an aspect ratio of 10–15. The templates were aligned in PMN‐28PT matrix powder via tape casting and fired in an O 2 –PbO atmosphere at 1150°C for up to 15 h. This resulted in textured ceramics with a 40 micrometer grain size and without residual templates. The volume fraction of textured material ( f ) and the orientation parameter ( r ) were quantified by fitting X‐ray diffraction rocking curve data to the March–Dollase equation. Processing conditions were optimized to achieve the best possible values of f and r for the chosen templates and matrix powder. A texture fraction of at least 81 vol% and an orientation parameter of 0.2 were achieved when all random matrix grains were consumed (a perfect textured ceramic would show a texture fraction of 100 vol% and an orientation parameter of 0).