High dielectric permittivity and electrostrictive strain in a wide temperature range in relaxor ferroelectric (1-x)[Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3]-xBa(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3 solid solutions

Abstract High electric field-induced strain with ultralow hysteresis, which is often generated based on electrostrictive effects in ferroelectric materials, is highly desired due to its potential applications in high-precision displacement actuators. In this paper, (1- x )[Pb(Mg 1/3 Nb 2/3 )O 3 -PbTiO 3 ]- x Ba(Zn 1/3 Nb 2/3 )O 3 [(1- x )(PMN-PT)- x BZN] ceramics were fabricated by a solid-state reaction method. The effect of Ba(Zn 1/3 Nb 2/3 )O 3 (BZN) content on dielectric and electrostrictive properties in relaxor ferroelectric PMN-PT solid solutions was investigated in detail by dielectric spectra, polarization-electric field ( P - E ) hysteresis loops and strain-electric field ( S - E ) curves. With an increasing BZN content, the temperature stability of the dielectric permittivity of (1- x )(PMN-PT)- x BZN is improved due to the formation of two coexistent phases. A high electrostrictive strain (~0.17% at 60 kV/cm) with an ultralow hysteresis ( x  = 0.1725. The strain versus polarization ( S - P ) curves measured from 30 °C to 130 °C can be well fitted based on a quadratic relation, suggesting the dominating role of the electrostrictive effect. The longitudinal electrostrictive coefficient Q 33 for this system ranges from 0.0254 m 4 /C 2 to 0.0318 m 4 /C 2 . Our results suggest that (1- x )(PMN-PT)- x BZN ferroelectric ceramics are potential candidates for applications in capacitors and high-precision displacement actuators.