Relaxor-PT single crystals for various applications

Piezoelectric materials lie at the heart of electromechanical transducers. Applications include actuators, ultrasonic imaging and high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU), underwater sonar, non-destructive evaluation (NDE), resonators, pressure sensors and accelerometers to name a few. In this work, we report on recent developments of the shear properties of Relaxor-PT single crystals with different phases and orientations, as a function of temperature and applied fields. Specifically, the piezoelectric shear d₂₄ coefficient in orthorhombic crystals was found to exhibit nearly temperature independent behavior, while acceptor doped relaxor-PT crystals exhibited improved field stability, due to the enhanced coercive fields and/or internal bias. Furthermore, the newly reported face shear vibration mode was studied, showing high ac drive field stability up to their respective coercive field, with high mechanical quality factors, being on the order of 100-300.