Elaboration and characterization of PMN–xPT solid ceramics used in a numerical simulation of a piezoelectric transducer for a loudspeaker application

Abstract

Solid ceramics (1 − x)PbMg1/3Nb2/3O3–xPbTiO3 (PMN–xPT) have been prepared and characterized in the present work. Three PMN–xPT compositions were used with x taking the values of 0.31, 0.33 and 0.35. For the three compositions, an analysis of the dielectric behavior has been made, in order to determine the phase transition temperatures and Curie’s temperatures by measuring the dielectric constants and the dielectric losses as a function of temperature and frequency. A typical behavior to that of ferroelectric relaxor materials was noted by the increase of the PT’s rate. Ferroelectric character was analyzed by studying the evolution of polarization as a function of the applied field for the different samples, with the variation of the temperature. The hysteresis loop was strongly modified by the action of the temperature. The remnant polarization, as well as the coercive field, decreases with the increase of the temperature and increase with the increase of the applied field. Due to their high dielectric and ferroelectric properties, a numerical simulation by a finite element analysis software was made on PMN–0.35PT pellets, used for a loudspeaker application. The mechanical and acoustic behaviors of the piezoelectric transducer were investigated.