Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 Research Articles

Large‐Scale Optical Manipulation of Ferroelectric Domains in PMN‐PT Crystals

AbstractThe manipulation of ferroelectric domains is a bridge connecting the basic research and the applications of ferroelectric materials. Here, after cooling across the Curie temperature under ultraviolet (UV) light illumination, out‐of‐plane (OP) polarization of a whole 0.72Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3‐0.28PbTiO3 (PMN‐28PT) crystal is poled in one direction. With the help of light‐dependent temporal Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM), the unified upward OP polarization is attributed to the negative charge accumulation at the surface upon exposure to UV light, which is also effective in the control of in‐plane (IP) polarization. Especially, a center‐convergent topological domain structure is formed in a PMN‐28PT crystal lamella via an optical method, which is easily engineered to fabricate large‐scale periodic arrays. This method is expected for high efficiency, low energy consumption, and large‐scale domain manipulation in ferroelectric materials.

Enhanced electromechanical properties in Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–PbTiO3 based 1–3 piezoelectric composites using the alternating current poling method

Extensive attention has been paid to alternating current polarization (ACP) as an effective technology to enhance the performance of ferroelectric materials. However, the effect of the ACP method on piezoelectric composites has not been determined. Herein, we studied and compared the effects of direct current polarization (DCP) and ACP on the dielectric, piezoelectric, and electromechanical properties of Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) single-crystal 1–3 piezoelectric composites. For the ACP samples, an increase of 19 % for ε33T/ε0, 15 % for d33, and 10 % for kt is observed in comparison with those of the DCP samples. Investigations of the domain structure indicated that the decreased domain size and high domain-wall density afforded the performance enhancement in ACP samples. Our results expand the application of the ACP method in piezoelectric composites and more diverse piezoelectric material categories.

Electrically Tunable Polymer Whispering-Gallery-Mode Laser.

Microlasers hold great promise for the development of photonics and optoelectronics. At present, tunable microcavity lasers, especially regarding in situ dynamic tuning, are still the focus of research. In this study, we combined a 0.7Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-0.3PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) piezoelectric crystal with a Poly [9,9-dioctylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl] (PFO) microring cavity to realize a high-quality, electrically tunable, whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) laser. The dependence of the laser properties on the diameter of the microrings, including the laser spectrum and quality (Q) value, was investigated. It was found that with an increase in microring diameter, the laser emission redshifted, and the Q value increased. In addition, the device effectively achieved a blueshift under an applied electric field, and the wavelength tuning range was 0.71 nm. This work provides a method for in situ dynamic spectral modulation of microcavity lasers, and is expected to provide inspiration for the application of integrated photonics technology.

Sensitive electric field control of first-order phase transition in epitaxial multiferroic heterostructures

Strongly correlated electron materials that exhibit rich phase transition and multiple phase separation have shown many fascinating properties. Using these properties in the electronic device will require the ability to control their phase transition and phase separation behaviours. In this work, we report a sensitive electric field control of first-order phase transition in epitaxial (011)-Nd0.5Sr0.5MnO3/0.71Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–0.29PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) heterostructure. The pristine film shows phase separation character with the penetration of the ferromagnetic metallic phase into the charge and orbital ordered antiferromagnetic insulating phase, and this was revealed by the XMCD and XLD investigation. The (011)-oriented PMN-PT piezoelectric single crystal adopted can exert anisotropic in-plane tensile strains on the epitaxial Nd0.5Sr0.5MnO3 film when applying the electric field. The coaction of the electric field-induced strain and polarization effects of the PMN-PT piezoelectrics enable the efficient manipulation of orbital ordering and the coupled electronic and magnetic phase transitions. Accordingly, a small +1.6 kV cm−1 electric field can recover the first-order metal-insulator transition which was inhibited in the pristine heterostructure, increase the transition temperature by 56 K and the maximum resistance change reaches 7033%. Furthermore, the electric field demonstrated non-volatile control of magnetization, and the magnetoelectric coefficient reaches 1.89 × 10−7 s m−1 at 200 K. This work indicates that choosing the piezoelectric substrate with appropriate electric-field-induced strain opens a route to designing functional electronic devices where the tunable macroscopic properties derive from strongly interacting degrees of freedom present in the manganite.

Determination of multi-physics effective properties, and actuation response of triply periodic minimal surface based novel photostrictive composites: A finite element analysis

This paper presents the novel triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) based photostrictive composite as an alternative to naturally occurring photostrictive materials. The non-thermal, light-induced mechanical strain i.e., photostriction involves the simultaneous action of photovoltaic effect and converse piezoelectric effect. All the effective elastic, dielectric, piezoelectric, and pyroelectric properties are evaluated using the finite element analysis and compared with traditional micromechanical models for fibrous composites. Degenerated shell element is used to simulate the actuation response of unimorph cantilever and simply supported beams bonded with TPMS based photostrictive composite. The proposed photostrictive composite consists of poly{4,8-bis[5-(2-ethyl-hexyl) thiophen-2-yl] benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b’] dithiophene-2,6-diyl-alt-3-fluoro-2-[(2-ethyl-hexyl) carbonyl] thieno[3,4-b] thiophene-4,6-diyl} (PTB7-Th) as photovoltaic polymer matrix and Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–0.35PbTiO3 (PMN-35PT) as TPMS—based filler material. The proposed TPMS based photostrictive composite induces 10 times larger actuation than 0–3 photostrictive composite. Also, the maximum deflection (3.22×10−5 m) of cantilever smart beam, achieved with Schoen-I-WP based photostrictive composite, is more than that achieved with Schoen-gyroid based photostrictive composite i.e., 2.78×10−5 m. Similar trends are obtained for simply supported smart beam where the center deflection for Schoen-I-WP based photostrictive composite and Schoen-gyroid based photostrictive composite are found to be 4.04×10−6 m and 3.49×10−6 m, respectively. The proposed novel photostrictive composite has potential for future wireless actuation applications.

Electric Field Sensor Based on High Q Fano Resonance of Nano-Patterned Electro-Optic Materials

This paper presents theoretical studies of Fano resonance based electric-field (E-field) sensors. E-field sensor based on two electro-optical (EO) materials i.e., barium titanate (BaTiO3, BTO) nanoparticles and relaxor ferroelectric material Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) combined with nanostructure are studied. As for the BTO based E-field sensor, a configuration of filling the BTO nanoparticles into a nano-patterned thin film silicon is proposed. The achieved resonance quality factor (Q) is 11,855 and a resonance induced electric field enhancement factor is of around 105. As for the design of PMN-PT based E-field sensor, a configuration by combining two square lattice air holes in PMN-PT thin film but with one offsetting hole left is chosen. The achieved resonance Q is of 9,273 and an electric field enhancement factor is of around 96. The resonance wavelength shift sensitivity of PMN-PT nanostructured can reach up to 4.768 pm/(V/m), while the BTO based nanostructure has a sensitivity of 0.1213 pm/(V/m). If a spectrum analyzer with 0.1 pm resolution is considered, then the minimum detection of the electric field Emin is 20 mV/m and 0.82 V/m for PMN-PT and BTO based nanostructures, respectively. The nano-patterned E-field sensor studied here are all dielectric, it has therefore the advantage of large measurement bandwidth, high measurement fidelity, high spatial resolution and high sensitivity.

Impact of annealing on electrocaloric response in Lanthanum-modified lead zirconate titanate ceramic

Over the past decades, there has been significant interest in new cooling technology based on the large electrocaloric effect observed in polymeric and inorganic ferroelectric materials. We report a dramatic impact of annealing on the electrocaloric effect observed by direct measurements in Pb0.88La0.12(Zr0.65Ti0.35)0.97O3 bulk ceramics (12/65/35 PLZT). In addition, the EC response was measured deep in a relaxor part of the PLZT composition phase diagram. After additional one-hour sample annealing at 600 °C, the EC response increased by about six times. Electrocaloric results confirm the existence of the significant electrocaloric response with the EC temperature change (ΔTEC) of 4.5 K at 360 K and 90 kV/cm in an annealed sample. This value exceeds previously obtained maximum ΔTEC values at the same field in perovskite relaxor ferroelectrics such as Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) and 8/65/35 PLZT ceramics. The electrocaloric responsivity ΔT/ΔE = 5.09 × 10−7 Km/V determined at 360 K is among the highest observed in bulk perovskite ferroelectrics at a relatively high electric field of 90 kV/cm.

Giant converse magnetoelectric effect in a multiferroic heterostructure with polycrystalline Co2FeSi

To overcome a bottleneck in spintronic applications such as those of ultralow-power magnetoresistive random-access memory devices, the electric-field control of magnetization vectors in ferromagnetic electrodes has shown much promise. Here, we show the giant converse magnetoelectric (CME) effect in a multiferroic heterostructure consisting of the ferromagnetic Heusler alloy Co2FeSi and ferroelectric-oxide Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) for electric-field control of magnetization vectors. Using an in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy of polycrystalline Co2FeSi film grown on PMN-PT(011), the nonvolatile and repeatable magnetization vector switchings in remanent states are demonstrated. The CME coupling coefficient of the polycrystalline Co2FeSi/PMN-PT(011) is over 1.0 × 10−5 s/m at room temperature, comparable to those of single-crystalline Fe1-xGax/PMN-PT systems. The giant CME effect has been demonstrated by the strain-induced variation in the magnetic anisotropy energy of Co2FeSi with an L21-ordered structure. This approach can lead to a new solution to the reduction in the write power in spintronic memory architectures at room temperature.

Enhanced Piezoelectric Properties and Improved Property Uniformity in Nd‐Doped PMN‐PT Relaxor Ferroelectric Single Crystals

AbstractRelaxor‐PbTiO3 crystals exhibit excellent piezoelectric properties (d33 > 2000 pC N−1 and k33 > 90%) and thus attractes widespread attention in the past two decades. However, the inevitable segregation of components during the crystal growth results in relatively low‐performance consistency of Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3‐PbTiO3 (PMN‐PT) crystals, which seriously affects their practical applications. In this work, Nd3+ as A‐site substitution is introduced to improve the uniformity of electromechanical performance of PMN‐PT crystal. The results show that the crystal exhibits a high piezoelectric coefficient of 3000 pC N−1 in rhombohedral phase with a variation of 36%. The electron probe X‐ray microanalyzer indicates that the opposite separation characteristics of Nd3+ and Ti4+ lead to improved uniformity of piezoelectric performance along the crystal boule. The giant piezoelectricity in Nd‐doped PMN‐PT is attributed to the enhanced local structural heterogeneity introduced by doping Nd. Furthermore, the Nd‐doped PMN‐PT crystal shows the rhombohedral‐tetragonal phase transition temperature in the range of 74–87 °C, which indicates that Nd‐doped PMN‐PT crystal can be a promising candidate for the design of advanced piezoelectric transducers.

Temperature dependent scaling behavior of 0.67PMN–0.33PT relaxor ferroelectric ceramics

Polarization reversal mechanisms are the key to understand the ferroelectric properties. The scaling behaviors of ferroelectric loops reveal the dynamic processes of ferroelectric domain's nucleation, growth, and reversal. Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) at morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) exhibits excellent piezoelectric and electromechanical properties. In this paper, the dynamic scaling behaviors of 0.67PMN-0.33PT ceramics at variable temperatures were investigated. Results indicate that, at the high electric field, the remanent polarization Pr, coercive field Ec, and hysteresis loops area <A> decrease monotonically with the increase of temperature. While at a low electric field, they first increase and then decrease with increasing temperature. The scaling exponents a and b increase with the increase of temperature, indicating that the frequency and electric amplitude dependence of polarization reversal is enhanced with temperature.

Narrow-band tunable optical filters based on cascaded Fabry-Perot cavities.

Narrow-band tunable optical filters (TOF) based on three cascaded Fabry-Perot (FP) cavities are demonstrated. The FP cavities are fabricated with Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 (PMN-PT), which is a transparent electro-optic ceramic. With a reflective design, the optical signal passes the three FP cavities twice. Thus we can design the FP cavities with a relatively low reflectivity, which enables it more tolerant to the loss in the cavities. Two types of TOF samples are fabricated. The specifications of the transmissive type TOF with dual-ports are tuning range >48nm, FWHM (full width half maximum) <0.06nm, insertion loss <3.87dB, crosstalk <-39dB, which meet the requirements by optical performance monitor (OPM) applications. The specifications of the reflective type TOF with single-port are tuning range >48nm, FWHM (full width half maximum) <0.1nm, insertion loss <2.82dB, crosstalk <-30dB, which can be employed in tunable fiber lasers for wavelength selection and tuning.

Voltage Manipulation of Synthetic Antiferromagnetism in CoFeB/Ta/CoFeB Heterostructure for Spintronic Application

AbstractThe synthetic antiferromagnets (SAFs) with inserted heavy metal tantalum (Ta) are attracting an increasing interest due to the relatively large spin Hall angles, resulting in a much lower driven current for low‐power consumption, and the conduciveness to high magnetoresistance, showing more suitability for an application. Here, stable and reversible switching behavior is experimentally realized between antiferromagnetic (AFM) coupling and ferromagnetic (FM) coupling in Co40Fe40B20/Ta/Co40Fe40B20/(011) Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3‐PbTiO3 (PMN‐PT) multiferroic heterostructures after applying an external voltage, proved by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) measurements. The indirect interaction shows no periodical oscillation with the layer thicknesses variation of FM layer or nonmagnetic (NM) layer experimentally, which is consistent with the previous reports in theoretical calculation. This work is instructive and guiding for a better understanding of SAFs and realizing the next generation of AFM spintronic devices.

Ultrahigh Piezoelectric Performance through Synergistic Compositional and Microstructural Engineering.

Piezoelectric materials enable the conversion of mechanical energy into electrical energy and vice‐versa. Ultrahigh piezoelectricity has been only observed in single crystals. Realization of piezoelectric ceramics with longitudinal piezoelectric constant (d 33) close to 2000 pC N–1, which combines single crystal‐like high properties and ceramic‐like cost effectiveness, large‐scale manufacturing, and machinability will be a milestone in advancement of piezoelectric ceramic materials. Here, guided by phenomenological models and phase‐field simulations that provide conditions for flattening the energy landscape of polarization, a synergistic design strategy is demonstrated that exploits compositionally driven local structural heterogeneity and microstructural grain orientation/texturing to provide record piezoelectricity in ceramics. This strategy is demonstrated on [001]PC‐textured and Eu3+‐doped Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3‐PbTiO3 (PMN‐PT) ceramics that exhibit the highest piezoelectric coefficient (small‐signal d 33 of up to 1950 pC N–1 and large‐signal d 33* of ≈2100 pm V–1) among all the reported piezoelectric ceramics. Extensive characterization conducted using high‐resolution microscopy and diffraction techniques in conjunction with the computational models reveals the underlying mechanisms governing the piezoelectric performance. Further, the impact of losses on the electromechanical coupling is identified, which plays major role in suppressing the percentage of piezoelectricity enhancement, and the fundamental understanding of loss in this study sheds light on further enhancement of piezoelectricity. These results on cost‐effective and record performance piezoelectric ceramics will launch a new generation of piezoelectric applications.

Elimination of pyrochlore phase in high‐concentration Sm3+‐doped PMN‐PT piezoelectric ceramics by excessive MgO

AbstractUndesirable pyrochlore phase often appears in Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3‐PbTiO3 (PMN‐PT)‐based ceramics with high rare‐earth ion (RE3+) doping concentration, which greatly limits their development. In this study, 0–5 mol% Sm3+‐doped Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3‐29PbTiO3 (PMN‐29PT:0‐5Sm) ceramics were first synthesized using traditional precursor method. In the X‐ray diffraction spectra and scanning electron microscope images of PMN‐29PT:3‐5Sm ceramics, the diffraction peaks of pyrochlore phase and pyrochlore grains with octahedral morphology were observed, respectively. The reason for the appearance of the pyrochlore phase is that Sm3+ doping causes the Nb‐rich regions. To eliminate the pyrochlore phase, PMN‐29PT:3‐5Sm ceramics were resynthesized by an improved precursor method in which an excess of 4 mol% MgO was added to the reactants before pre‐sintering. After adding an excess of 4 mol% MgO, the concentration ratio of Nb5+ and Mg2+ in the pyrochlore grains returned to the value in the perovskite grains, and the pyrochlore phase was transformed into the perovskite phase PMN. The dielectric, ferroelectric, and electromechanical properties were compared before and after eliminating the pyrochlore phase. The results show that the comprehensive performance of the ceramics is improved after eliminating the pyrochlore phase.

Determining the effects of BaTiO3 template alignment on template grain growth of Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3 –PbTiO3 and effects on piezoelectric properties

Crystallographic texturing of ferroelectric ceramics is an established method of inducing single crystal-like properties in a ceramic material via epitaxial grain growth according to the template used, otherwise known as Templated Grain Growth (TGG). The piezoelectric enhancement is dependent on the degree of TGG throughout the ceramic, which is closely linked to the tape casting parameters and sintering conditions. Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) perovskite ferroelectrics with morphotropic phase boundary compositions using 3 vol% BaTiO3 templates were used for analysis. The blade gap and template size have the greatest impact on the overall grain alignment. The varying degrees of template alignment is related to the different enhancements of TGG and the correlating piezoelectric d33 and d*33. The highest piezoelectric property was demonstrated in PMN-31PT with Lotgering factor of 93% where d33 = 1020 pC/N and d*33 = 1420 pm/V were achieved.

Optical properties and laser-induced damage threshold for Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3−based ferroelectric crystals

As an excellent kind of ferroelectric crystal, Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) crystals have been proved to have excellent nonlinear optical properties. However, the laser damage threshold (LIDT) for PMN-PT crystals, another important parameter in the field of nonlinear crystals remains understudied. This study investigated the optical properties and laser-induced damage thresholds (LIDTs) for PMN-based crystals. It shows that the maximum transmission is 78% and the maximum threshold for PMN-based crystals is 6.92 J/cm2, amounting to about 3.64 times the threshold for doped PMN-based crystals (1.9 J/cm2). This is probably related to the considerably decreased laser resistance of the dopants to PMN-based crystals because of the heterogeneous local polar regions and defects in the doped crystals. Conclusively, the present study has proved that pure PMN-based crystals are currently the optimal candidates for high-power laser applications and that the doped PMN-based crystals may be an ideal candidate for on-chip photonic devices.

Achieving both high electromechanical properties and temperature stability in textured PMN‐PT ceramics

AbstractTextured piezoelectric ceramics, such as textured Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3‐PbTiO3 (PMN‐PT) ceramics, have attracted considerable attention from both academia and industry, as they possess crystal‐like piezoelectric properties, high composition homogeneity, and low manufacturing cost. However, the main difficulty with the textured piezoelectric ceramics is the presence of BaTiO3 (BT) templates, which greatly reduces their piezoelectricity and phase transition temperature. Thus, it is highly recommended to fabricate textured piezoelectric ceramics using as few templates as possible. Here, we successfully fabricated high‐quality &lt;001&gt;‐textured PMN‐28PT ceramics (texturing degree of 99%) by using an extremely small amount of BT templates (1 vol.%) with the help of CuO/B2O3 sintering aids. The textured PMN‐28PT ceramic exhibits 80% piezoelectric coefficient (d33 ∼ 1200 pC/N), 96% electromechanical coefficient (k33 ∼ 88%) and the same temperature stability (Trt ∼ 100, Tc ∼ 150°C) when compared to its single crystal counterpart. In addition, by using an alternating current electric field poling (AC‐poling), the piezoelectric coefficient d33 and dielectric permittivity ε33 of the textured PMN‐28PT ceramics were further enhanced around 5–8%. It is believed that the advantages of high electromechanical properties, low cost, and easy mass production of textured PMN‐28PT ceramic will make it a promising candidate for advanced electromechanical devices.

Recent Progress in Devices Based on Magnetoelectric Composite Thin Films.

The strain-driven interfacial coupling between the ferromagnetic and ferroelectric constituents of magnetoelectric (ME) composites makes them potential candidates for novel multifunctional devices. ME composites in the form of thin-film heterostructures show promising applications in miniaturized ME devices. This article reports the recent advancement in ME thin-film devices, such as highly sensitive magnetic field sensors, ME antennas, integrated tunable ME inductors, and ME band-pass filters, is discussed. (Pb1−xZrx)TiO3 (PZT), Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 (PMN-PT), Aluminium nitride (AlN), and Al1−xScxN are the most commonly used piezoelectric constituents, whereas FeGa, FeGaB, FeCo, FeCoB, and Metglas (FeCoSiB alloy) are the most commonly used magnetostrictive constituents in the thin film ME devices. The ME field sensors offer a limit of detection in the fT/Hz1/2 range at the mechanical resonance frequency. However, below resonance, different frequency conversion techniques with AC magnetic or electric fields or the delta-E effect are used. Noise floors of 1–100 pT/Hz1/2 at 1 Hz were obtained. Acoustically actuated nanomechanical ME antennas operating at a very-high frequency as well as ultra-high frequency (0.1–3 GHz) range, were introduced. The ME antennas were successfully miniaturized by a few orders smaller in size compared to the state-of-the-art conventional antennas. The designed antennas exhibit potential application in biomedical devices and wearable antennas. Integrated tunable inductors and band-pass filters tuned by electric and magnetic field with a wide operating frequency range are also discussed along with miniaturized ME energy harvesters.

Enhancing Electromechanical Properties of Pb(Sc1/2Nb1/2)O3‐PbZrO3‐PbTiO3 Piezoelectric Ceramics via Templated Grain Growth

AbstractRelaxor‐PbTiO3‐based ternary ferroelectric solid‐solution ceramics with high Curie temperature end members are effective to achieve broader usage temperature range and drive field stability, meanwhile with comparable piezoelectric responses to binary Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3‐PbTiO3 (PMN‐PT). Templated grain growth is viable alternative to crystal growth that uses templates to induce crystal orientation along a specific direction, thus enhancing the piezoelectric response. In this research, perovskite Pb(Sc1/2Nb1/2)O3‐PbZrO3‐PbTiO3 (PSN‐PZ‐PT) system with varying components is developed to determine the morphotropic phase boundary; together with the texturing characteristics, a high piezoelectric response with broad temperature usage range is expected. 37.5PSN‐20PZ‐42.5PT exhibits enhanced piezoelectric d33 of 530 pC N−1 and strain level of 0.20% at 20 kV cm−1, while retaining a high Curie temperature of 309 °C. Of particular interest is that a high piezoelectric voltage coefficient g33, totaling 56 × 10−3 Vm N−1 can be achieved in this composition, leading to a high figure of merit, (d33 × g33)/tan δ, of 5.8 × 10−10 m2 N−1, one order higher than that of PMN‐PT textured counterpart, being potential for energy harvesting and hydrophone applications.

Microscopic piezoelectric behavior of clamped and membrane (001) PMN-30PT thin films

Bulk single-crystal relaxor-ferroelectrics, like Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 (PMN-PT), are widely known for their large piezoelectricity. This is attributed to polarization rotation, which is facilitated by the presence of various crystal symmetries for compositions near a morphotropic phase boundary. Relaxor-ferroelectric thin films, which are necessary for low-voltage applications, suffer a reduction in their piezoelectric response due to clamping by the passive substrate. To understand the microscopic behavior of this adverse phenomenon, we employ the AC electric field driven in-operando synchrotron x-ray diffraction on patterned device structures to investigate the piezoelectric domain behavior under an electric field for both a clamped (001) PMN-PT thin film on Si and a (001) PMN-PT membrane released from its substrate. In the clamped film, the substrate inhibits the field-induced rhombohedral (R) to tetragonal (T) phase transition resulting in a reversible R to Monoclinic (M) transition with a reduced longitudinal piezoelectric coefficient d33 &amp;lt; 100 pm/V. Releasing the film from the substrate results in recovery of the R to T transition and results in a d33 &amp;gt; 1000 pm/V. Using diffraction with spatial mapping, we find that lateral constraints imposed by the boundary between the active and inactive materials also inhibit the R to T transition. Phase-field calculations on both clamped and released PMN-PT thin films simulate our experimental findings. Resolving the suppression of thin film piezoelectric response is critical to their application in piezo-driven technologies.