Contribution to the large and stable electric field induced strain for textured Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.675Ti0.325O3 ceramics

Textured Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.675Ti0.325O3 (PMN-PT) ceramics were prepared by the templated grain growth method with 3% plate-like BaTiO3 as templates. The degree of grain orientation was about 81% by calculating from the XRD pattern. Temperature dependence of electric field induced strain was measured for both untextured and textured PMN-PT ceramics. The results show that the electric field induced strain for textured PMN-PT ceramics is much larger and more stable than that for untextured PMN-PT ceramics in a wide temperature range. The contribution from the piezoelectric effect and electrostrictive effect to the strain was analyzed, and it was found that textured PMN-PT ceramics exhibited electrostrictive coefficient Q33 as high as 5.19 × 10−2 m4 C−2 and it was comparable to that of PMN-PT single crystals. The electrostrictive effect contributed the main part of the enhancement of electric field induced strain for textured PMN-PT ceramics.