Orientation dependence of electrical properties of 0.96Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3-0.04BaTiO3 lead-free piezoelectric single crystal

Abstract

In this paper, a single crystal of 0.96Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3-0.04BaTiO3 with dimensions of Φ 30×10 mm was grown by the top-seeded-solution growth method. X-ray powder diffraction results show that the as-grown crystal possesses the rhombohedral perovskite-type structure. The dielectric, piezoelectric and electrical conductivity properties were systematically investigated with 〈001〉, 〈110〉 and 〈111〉 oriented crystal samples. The room-temperature dielectric constants for the 〈001〉, 〈110〉 and 〈111〉 oriented crystal samples are found to be 650, 740 and 400 at 1 kHz. The (Tm, em) values of the dielectric temperature spectra are almost independent of the crystal orientations; they are (306°C, 3718), (305°C, 3613) and (307°C, 3600) at 1 kHz for the 〈001〉, 〈110〉 and 〈111〉 oriented crystal. The optimum poling conditions were obtained by investigating the piezoelectric constants d33 as a function of poling temperature and poling electric field. For the 〈001〉 and 〈110〉 crystal samples, the maximum d33 values of 146 and 117 pC/N are obtained when a poling electric field of 3.5 kV/mm and a poling temperature of 80°C were applied during the poling process. The as-grown 0.96Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3-0.04BaTiO3 crystal possesses a relatively large dc electrical conductivity, especially at higher temperature, having a value of 1.98×10−11 Ω−1⋅m−1 and 3.95×10−9 Ω−1⋅m−1 at 25°C and 150°C for the 〈001〉 oriented crystal sample.