Heteroepitaxial growth of bulk single-crystalPb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–32 mol% PbTiO3 from (111) SrTiO3

Abstract

SrTiO3 was investigated as an alternate seed material to grow Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–PbTiO3 (PMN–PT) ferroelectric single crystals by seeded polycrystal conversion. Fully dense polycrystalline samples of PMN–32 mol% PT doped with 3 vol% excess PbO were top-seeded with (111) SrTiO3 substrates. Annealing for 10 h at 1150 °C resulted in growth of PMN–32PT single crystals with sizes on the order of several millimeters. Orientation imaging microscopy confirmed that the grown crystal exhibited the same crystallographic orientation as that of the SrTiO3 seed. Elemental distributions analyzed using energy dispersive spectroscopy indicated that interdiffusi on of the relevant elements was negligible.