
Handbook of dielectric, piezoelectric and ferroelectric materials256
9.3.3 PZN–PT multi-domain crystals poled along [011]
Domain patterns in these domain engineered single crystals can be manipulated
by off-polar direction poling, and the poling field does not have to be applied
along [001]. In fact, if the optimized properties are d
32
or d
15
, [011] direction
poled crystals can be better than [001] direction poled crystals. This can be
seen from the complete set of properties characterized on a [011] poled
PZN–7%PT crystal system.
25
For the [011] direction poled crystals, the
effective domain pattern symmetry is orthorhombic mm2, so that 17
independent coefficients must be measured to form the complete data set.
26
From Table 9.9 we can see that the [011] direction poled crystal has much
superior d
32
(–1460 pC/N) with the electromechanical coupling coefficients
k
32
reaching 0.87. Although the d
31
value of [001] poled crystals can also
reach –1400 pC/N, their k
31
values are less than 0.58. Therefore, the [011]
poled crystals are superior in transverse mode piezoelectric device applications.
In addition, the [011] direction poled crystals have a very large shear
piezoelectric coefficient d
15
(> 1800 pC/N), while the shear piezoelectric
coefficient of [001] poled crystals is much smaller (d
15
< 180 pC/N).
9.4 Correlation between single domain and multi-
domain properties and the principle of property
enhancement in domain engineered
ferroelectric single crystals
In order to understand the principles of property enhancement through the
domain engineering process, it is necessary to find the correlation between
single domain properties and multi-domain properties. There are two main
contributions from multi-domain structures that do not exist in single domain
systems. One is the domain wall contribution, as often mentioned in ceramic
piezoelectric materials, and the other is the orientation effect.
A full set of data had been obtained for single domain single crystal
PMN–33%PT,
27
which has rhombohedral 3m symmetry. There are altogether
12 independent material constants to fully describe the crystal: 6 elastic, 4
piezoelectric and 2 dielectric constants. In order to define the property matrix
and find the correlations to the multi-domain data, we must define the coordinate
system of the rhombohedral phase with respect to the cubic phase coordinates.
As illustrated in Fig. 9.4, if we use the subscript ‘r’ to represent the
rhombohedral phase, their relationships with cubic coordinate systems are:
[100]
r
↔ [1
1
0]
, [010]
r
↔ [11
2
], [001]
r
↔ [111]
Here the conversions between the cubic and the tetragonal coordinate
systems are different from those used in reference 27 therefore, some signs
of the constants listed in Table 9.10 are different from those given