Growth and electrical performance of Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–PbTiO3–Pb(Fe1/2Nb1/2)O3 single crystals

For the first time, we have grown ferroelectric single crystals Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–PbTiO3–Pb(Fe1/2Nb1/2)O3 (PMN–PT–PFN) from the melt by the simple slow cooling process. The chemical composition of the single crystals PMN–PT–PFN (0.59/0.31/0.10) is near the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB). X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to study phase structure of the as-grown crystals, energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS) and electron probe micro-analyzer (EPMA) were employed to confirm the chemical composition and element distribution of the as-grown crystals, respectively. The ferroelectric, dielectric and piezoelectric properties of the as-grown PMN–PT–PFN (0.59/0.31/0.10) single crystal oriented along the (0 0 1) axis were measured, which showed that the remnant polarization (Pr), coercive electric fields (Ec), the Curie temperature (Tc) and the piezoelectric coefficient (d33) were 50.2 μC/cm2, 13.9 kV/cm, 158 °C and about 1800 pC/N, respectively. All the results indicated that the PMN–PT–PFN (0.59/0.31/0.10) single crystals are promising for applying to field of high frequency.