Microscopic origin of the enhanced piezoelectric thermal stability in acceptor doped lead-free Ba(Ti0.8Zr0.2)O3-50(Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3 ceramic

Abstract Acceptor doping is effective in enhancing thermal stability in piezoceramics, while the reason underlying is still unclear and awaits explanation. In this work, through doping acceptor Mn in lead-free Ba(Ti0.8Zr0.2)O3-50(Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3 ceramic, our results show that doping Mn achieves higher depolarization temperature, even higher than Curie temperature (TC) and simultaneously a better piezoelectric thermal stability. Through microscopic and macroscopic analysis, the enhancement can be explained by the clamping effect induced by acceptor doping, which is carefully demonstrated by symmetry-conforming short-range ordering tendency theory. Thus, this work reveals the mechanism for enhanced depolarization temperature and piezoelectric thermal stability due to acceptor doping and will help developing new thermal stable lead-free piezoceramics applicable in a wider temperature range.