Thermally induced phase switching in mechanically biased single crystal relaxors

Abstract

In this work, we examine the time-dependent piezoelectric response of [011] poled rhombohedral [Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3]0.24[Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3]0.44[PbTiO3]0.32 single crystals under variable thermal loading. We find that thermal radiation incident on a piezoelectric crystal held under mechanical compressive bias stress generates an abrupt jump in strain with a rise time <1\u2009ms, much faster than the bulk thermal time scale. This discontinuity is associated with a weak first-order ferroelectric–ferroelectric structural phase transition as confirmed by in situ X-ray diffraction results. We demonstrate that this transition can be cycled repeatedly with low thermal hysteresis (<3\u2009°C) under zero applied electric field with a sizable reversible strain jump of ∼0.12%. Moreover, we show that the thermally driven phase switching behavior can be tuned by varying the bias stress and/or electric field, establishing effective control parameters and conditions for future applications such as actuators, thermally controlled transducers, and sensors.In this work, we examine the time-dependent piezoelectric response of [011] poled rhombohedral [Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3]0.24[Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3]0.44[PbTiO3]0.32 single crystals under variable thermal loading. We find that thermal radiation incident on a piezoelectric crystal held under mechanical compressive bias stress generates an abrupt jump in strain with a rise time <1\u2009ms, much faster than the bulk thermal time scale. This discontinuity is associated with a weak first-order ferroelectric–ferroelectric structural phase transition as confirmed by in situ X-ray diffraction results. We demonstrate that this transition can be cycled repeatedly with low thermal hysteresis (<3\u2009°C) under zero applied electric field with a sizable reversible strain jump of ∼0.12%. Moreover, we show that the thermally driven phase switching behavior can be tuned by varying the bias stress and/or electric field, establishing effective control parameters and conditions for future applications such as actuators, thermally controlled trans...