The piezoelectric activity in ͓001͔ poled Pb͑In 1/2 Nb 1/2 ͒O 3 -Pb͑Mg 1/3 Nb 2/3 ͒O 3 -PbTiO 3 crystals was investigated as a function of composition and temperature. The level of intrinsic and/or extrinsic contribution to the total piezoelectric activity was analyzed using Rayleigh method. The results revealed that though 95% of the observed piezoelectric activity in rhombohedral crystals was intrinsic ͑lattice͒, the properties decreased significantly with decreasing temperature. At −150°C, the piezoelectric response decreased by 40%-55% for the compositions close to a morphotropic phase boundary ͑rhombohedral-monoclinic or monoclinic-tetragonal͒, while decreasing only 20%-30% for the compositions in the rhombohedral region. The piezoelectric properties of Pb͑Mg 1/3 Nb 2/3 ͒O 3 -PbTiO 3 polycrystalline ceramics were found to decrease by 75%, showing both intrinsic and extrinsic contributions play important role in the reduction in piezoelectricity at cryogenic temperatures for ceramics. © 2010 American Institute of Physics. ͓doi:10.1063/1.3430059͔
Relaxor-PbTiO 3͑PT͒ based crystals, such as ͑1-x͒Pb͑Zn 1/3 Nb 2/3 ͒O 3 -xPbTiO 3 and ͑1-x͒Pb͑Mg 1/3 Nb 2/3 ͒O 3 -xPbTiO 3 ͑PMN-PT͒, have attracted significant attention owing to their high piezoelectric activity ͑d 33 Ͼ 1500 pC/ N͒ along the ͓001͔ crystallographic direction. 1 In addition to high piezoelectric activity, rhombohedral ternary Pb͑In 1/2 Nb 1/2 ͒O 3 -Pb͑Mg 1/3 Nb 2/3 ͒O 3 -PbTiO 3 ͑PIN-PMN-PT͒ crystals have been studied, 2-4 offering expanded temperature usage range, Ͼ30°C higher than that of commercial PMN-PT binary crystals. The ultrahigh piezoelectric activity in domain engineered relaxor-based crystals is believed to be primarily intrinsic ͑lattice͒ in nature. Two underlying intrinsic mechanisms, including "polarization rotation" ͑Ref. 5͒ and "high piezoelectric anisotropy ͑d 15 / d 33 ӷ 1͒," 6 have been proposed as the origin of the high piezoelectric activity. Actually, an "easy" polarization rotation is directly related to the high piezoelectric anisotropy. 7 Investigations of polycrystalline ceramics and single crystals at cryogenic temperatures 8-13 revealed a high reduction in piezoelectric response, being attributed to the clamping of domain wall motion and/or mobility, 8,9 reflecting a high level of extrinsic contribution in ceramics/crystals. However, based on a recent investigation, 14 the extrinsic contribution was found to be less than 10% of the total piezoelectric response across the compositional range of 0.25Ͻ x Ͻ 0.35 in ͑1-x͒PMN-xPT crystals, owing to the stable domain engineered structure. Thus, it was deemed important to further investigate the intrinsic and extrinsic contributions to the piezoelectric response in relaxor-PT based crystals as a function of decreasing temperature.Rayleigh law has been used to study the degree of intrinsic/extrinsic contribution to dielectric and piezoelectric activity in ferroelectric crystals and ceramics. 15,16 In the present study, the Rayleigh analysis was used to delineate the level of the int...