Effect of excess PbO and sintering temperature on the templated grain growth of Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.67Ti0.33O3 polycrystals

The effect of excess lead oxide and sintering temperature on the microstructure evolution in the templated grain growth (TGG) of the Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.67Ti0.33O3 (PMNT67/33) polycrystals was investigated. By adding excess PbO in the precursor of PMNT ceramics, the textured structure of PMNT polycrystals was obtained near SrTiO3 (ST) template by the conventional ceramic technique. The texture profiles developed progressively with increasing the concentration of excess PbO. A suitable sintering temperature is also very essential to grow a thick textured layer and avoid a second phase. Furthermore, the through-thickness of the PMNT textured layer is strongly influenced by the uniaxial compact-pressure of preparing the ST seeded PMNT specimen. C 2005 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.