Growth and pyroelectric properties of rhombohedral 0.21Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3-0.49Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-0.3PbTiO3 ternary single crystals

Relaxor-based ferroelectric single crystal xPb(In1/2Nb1/2)O-3-YPb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O-3-(1-x-y)PbTiO3 {PIMNT [100x/100y/100(1-x-y)]} has been grown by the modified Bridgman technique. The as-grown PIMNT (21/49/30) crystal with a rhombohedral perovskite-type structure shows high phase transition temperature from ferroelectric rhombohedral to tetragonal (T-RT similar to 125 C) and high Curie temperature (T-C similar to 180 degrees C), about 50 degrees C higher than what was found for the 0.71Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O-3-0.29PbTiO(3) [PMNT (71/29)] crystal. Moreover, as a core parameter of the pyroelectric material, the detectivity figures-of-merit of the PIMNT (21/49/30) crystal is 14.2 x 10(-5) Pa-(1/2), higher than that of other typical relaxor-based ferroelectric crystals, which primarily stems from the low dielectric loss, making it a promising candidate for the next generation of high performance infrared detectors. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.