Simultaneously achieving giant piezoelectricity and record coercive field enhancement in relaxor-based ferroelectric crystals

Liya Yang; Houbing Huang; Zengzhe Xi; Limei Zheng; Shiqi Xu; Gang Tian; Yuzhi Zhai; Feifei Guo; Lingping Kong; Yonggang Wang; Weiming Lü; Long Yuan; Minglei Zhao; Haiwu Zheng; Gang Liu

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-29962-6

Simultaneously achieving giant piezoelectricity and record coercive field enhancement in relaxor-based ferroelectric crystals

Nat Commun. 2022 May 4;13(1):2444. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-29962-6.

Authors

Liya Yang^#^{1

2

3}, Houbing Huang^#⁴, Zengzhe Xi⁵, Limei Zheng⁶, Shiqi Xu⁴, Gang Tian¹, Yuzhi Zhai¹, Feifei Guo⁵, Lingping Kong⁷, Yonggang Wang⁷, Weiming Lü⁸, Long Yuan⁹, Minglei Zhao¹, Haiwu Zheng², Gang Liu¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ School of Physics, State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, 250100, Jinan, China.
² International Joint Research Laboratory of New Energy Materials and Devices of Henan Province, School of Physics and Electronics, Henan University, 475004, Kaifeng, China.
³ Condensed Matter Science and Technology Institute, School of Instrumentation Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, 150080, Harbin, China.
⁴ School of Materials Science and Engineering & Advanced Research Institute of Multidisciplinary Science, Beijing Institute of Technology, 100081, Beijing, China.
⁵ School of Materials and Chemical Engineering, Xi'an Technological University, 710032, Xi'an, China.
⁶ School of Physics, State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, 250100, Jinan, China. zhenglm@sdu.edu.cn.
⁷ Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research, 201203, Shanghai, China.
⁸ Spintronics Institute, School of Physics and Technology, University of Jinan, 250022, Jinan, China. sdy_lvwm@ujn.edu.cn.
⁹ Key Laboratory of Functional Materials Physics and Chemistry of the Ministry of Education, Jilin Normal University, 130103, Changchun, China.
¹⁰ Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research, 201203, Shanghai, China. liugang@hpstar.ac.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

A large coercive field (E_C) and ultrahigh piezoelectricity are essential for ferroelectrics used in high-drive electromechanical applications. The discovery of relaxor-PbTiO₃ crystals is a recent breakthrough; they currently afford the highest piezoelectricity, but usually with a low E_C. Such performance deterioration occurs because high piezoelectricity is interlinked with an easy polarization rotation, subsequently favoring a dipole switch under small fields. Therefore, the search for ferroelectrics with both a large E_C and ultrahigh piezoelectricity has become an imminent challenge. Herein, ternary Pb(Sc_1/2Nb_1/2)O₃-Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃-PbTiO₃ crystals are reported, wherein the dispersed local heterogeneity comprises abundant tetragonal phases, affording a E_C of 8.2 kV/cm (greater than that of Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃-PbTiO₃ by a factor of three) and ultrahigh piezoelectricity (d₃₃ = 2630 pC/N; d₁₅ = 490 pC/N). The observed E_C enhancement is the largest reported for ultrahigh-piezoelectric materials, providing a simple, practical, and universal route for improving functionalities in ferroelectrics with an atomic-level understanding.

Grants and funding

U2032129/National Science Foundation of China | National Natural Science Foundation of China-Yunnan Joint Fund (NSFC-Yunnan Joint Fund)