Driving Electric Field Effects on Piezoelectric Transducers

Abstract

Electromechanical properties for lead zirconate-titanate Pb(ZrxTi1-x)O3 (PZT) based ceramic and lithium niobate LiNbO3 (LN) crystal piezoelectric transducers were studied from a driving electric field viewpoint. The vibration velocity linearly increases with the driving field for a 128°-rotated Y-cut LN transducer and its maximum vibration velocity which can be used is 2.7 m/s when driven with the driving field of 7 ×102 V/m. The transducer is mechanically broken when driven with a higher field. The vibration velocity for the PZT based ceramic transducer initially increases with an increasing field and then gradually converges onto a certain value accompanied by heat generation. These phenomena are caused by the decrease in the mechanical quality factor with an increasing field. The 0.45PbZrO3–0.45PbTiO3–0.10Pb(Mn1/3Sb2/3)O3 ceramic transducer is capable of generating 0.68 m/s with 5.5 ×103 V/m.