Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Vol.97, No.9, 2850-2857, 2014
High-Performance Ferroelectric Solid Solution Crystals: Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O-3-Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O-3-PbTiO3
A series of regular shaped Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O-3-based ternary ferroelectric single crystals (1-x)Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O-3-0.33Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O-3-xPbTiO(3) (PIN-PZN-PT) have been grown by means of the top-seeded solution growth method that prevented pyrochlore phase and promoted [001] or [111] growth. The nucleation and crystallization behavior of the Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O-3-based ferroelectric single crystals differed from other relaxor-based ferroelectric single crystals was discovered. Di-/piezo-/ferro-/pyroelectric properties were characterized systematically. The PIN-PZN-PT single crystals showed large coercive fields E-c, high Curie temperature T-C and high pyroelectric coefficient P, presenting similar performance but better thermal stability compared with the PZN-PT single crystals, and making it a promising material for transducers and IR detectors in a wider temperature range.