Temperature stability of elastic and piezoelectric properties in LiNbO3 single crystal

Abstract

Temperature dependences of the piezoelectric modulus d31 and complex elastic compliance have been measured for a lithium niobate single crystal grown by the high temperature top-seeded solution growth technique. The results obtained have shown that the imaginary part of the elastic coefficient is probably sensitive to the lithium ion and proton migration inside the crystal. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy has revealed the existence of some defects in the crystal structure. While these imperfections only weakly control the magnitude of the piezoelectric coefficients, they influence the elastic properties, even in the relatively low temperature range. It was found that the temperature dependence of the elastic properties is stable as long as a temperature of ∼90 °C is not reached.