Fabrication of PMN–PZT Transparent Ceramics by Two‐Stage Sintering

Abstract

Highly optically transparent ceramics of (1Àx)Pb(Mg 1/3 Nb 2/3 ) O 3 -xPb(Zr 0.53, Ti 0.47 )O 3 (PMN-PZT) were fabricated by a two-stage sintering method without La-modification. The ceramics exhibited high optical transparency (64% at 1500 nm) for visible and near infrared wavelength. The ferroelectric domain and microstructure of PMN-PZT transparent ceramics prepared were also investigated. Fully dense microstructure was observed in all PMN-PZT transparent ceramic samples. Higher PMN containing compositions exhibited pyrochlore phase and relatively lower transparency for near infrared wavelengths. Fine and irregular fingerprint ferroelectric domains were observed in all PMN-PZT compositions except in the PMN-PZT 67/33 composition that had dense microstructure and pure perovskite phase. This PMN-PZT 67/33 composition exhibited the lowest transparency (40% at 1500 nm) with large-scale macrodomain structure.

Investigation on the Electric‐Induced Light Scattering of PLZT Transparent Ceramics

“…. This is reasonable that the FE‐like characteristic or the relatively bigger FE domain for composition A would induce an original intrinsic light scattering and thus a degradation in the high transparency in the original state, albeit a smaller E dr . This suggests a competitive relationship between the driving field E dr and the transparency in original state for these PLZT ceramics.…”

Electric Field‐Induced Light Scattering in Eu‐Doped PMN‐PT Transparent Ceramics

“…Figure shows the variation of transmittance of Eu‐doped 0.75PMN‐0.25PT transparent ceramics under external DC fields. It can be found that the transmittance would decrease with increasing electric field for lower Eu doping concentrations (1% and 2%) which results from the growth of ferroelectric domains since incident light could be significantly scattered by domains with large sizes . While the threshold field ( E th) for the decrease of transmitted light intensity of 1% and 2% Eu‐doped samples is different, as can be seen in the Fig.…”

Fabrication of Transparent Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–PbTiO3 Based Ceramics by Conventional Sintering

“…Possible mechanisms that increased the optical transmission by La‐doping were associated with changes in microstructure and/or domain structure . To determine which factor was more important, the microstructures were initially studied.…”