Investigations on ferroelectric PMN-PT and PZN-PT single crystals ability for power or resonant actuators

Ferroelectric single crystals of PZN-PT and PMN-PT exhibit outstanding properties: high charge coefficient (d(ij)), high coupling factor (k(ij)) and high strain levels under DC fields. Besides, their mechanical quality factor is believed to be low. Their usefulness for non-resonant or large bandwidth transducers has therefore been previously investigated. However, few studies have been devoted to the dielectric and mechanical losses of single crystals and to their stability under high levels of excitations (electric fields, temperature and mechanical stress). A knowledge and understanding of such performances is needed to determine whether single crystals are suitable materials for power or resonant transducers. In this work, losses and non-linearity versus external excitations are investigated. Dielectric losses and mechanical losses are measured versus electric field for different compositions, orientations. The evolution of d(33) and epsilon(33)(T) are obtained versus electric field and temperature for the longitudinal mode. Strain and hysteresis versus sweep mode (up and down) are measured near the resonance frequency using a laser Doppler vibrometer. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.