Growth of Mn-doped Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3-Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 single crystal boule with MnO content gradient along growth direction using continuous-feeding Bridgman method and MnO content dependence of ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties

Abstract

Abstract A Mn-doped Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3-Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 single crystal boule was grown by the continuous-feeding Bridgman method to investigate the relationship between the MnO content and the properties such as piezoelectric coefficient and mechanical quality factor. Using high MnO content ceramics as an initially loaded material and low MnO content ceramics as a continuous-feeding material, a suitable composition distribution was achieved for the investigation (i.e. MnO content monotonically decreases from 0.45 to 0.29 wt% while the content of other elements are stable along the growth direction). The evaluation of the boule revealed that the MnO content greatly affects the properties despite the small variation in MnO content (0.16 wt%). The highest mechanical quality factor Qm31 of 900 along with a high piezoelectric constant d 33 of 840 pC/N was obtained at 0.35 wt% MnO. The data obtained during this investigation will be beneficial to determine a suitbable MnO content for building a practical piezoelectric device.