Structural features and energy harvester device applications of textured 0.675 PMN-0.325 PT piezoceramics

In the current study, textured lead magnesium niobate-lead titanate solid solution with composition 0.675Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O-3-0.325PbTiO(3) (0.675PMN-0.325PT) has been fabricated with 0.7 mol% manganese (Mn) doping to enhance the soft character and the figure of merit (FOM). Random and textured PMN-PT plates were prepared by tape casting where 1 vol% plate-like barium titanate (BaTiO3) single-crystal templates were added to induce texture. A detailed structural investigation using scanning/transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and precession electron diffraction techniques has been conducted to establish the orientational relationship between the PMN-PT matrix and the BT templates. The FOM of textured and doped PMN-PT was found to increase for almost fourfold compared to random undoped case. Characterization of the energy harvesting (EH) performance of unimorph EH devices indicated an over twofold increase in the output power of the doped and textured case in comparison to the undoped and random PMN-PT ceramics.