High dielectric permittivity and electrostrictive strain in a wide temperature range in relaxor ferroelectric (1-x)[Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3]-xBa(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3 solid solutions

High electric field-induced strain with ultralow hysteresis, which is often generated based on electrostrictive effects in ferroelectric materials, is highly desired due to its potential applications in high-precision displacement actuators. In this paper, (1-x)[Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O-3-PbTiO3]-xBa(Zn-1/3 Nb-2/3)O-3 [(1-x)(PMN-PT)-xBZN] ceramics were fabricated by a solid-state reaction method. The effect of Ba(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O-3 (BZN) content on dielectric and electrostrictive properties in relaxor ferroelectric PMN-PT solid solutions was investigated in detail by dielectric spectra, polarization-electric field (P-E) hysteresis loops and strain-electric field (S-E) curves. With an increasing BZN content, the temperature stability of the dielectric permittivity of (1-x)(PMN-PT)-xBZN is improved due to the formation of two coexistent phases. A high electrostrictive strain (similar to 0.17% at 60 kV/cm) with an ultralow hysteresis ( < 10%) characteristic is obtained in a composition where x = 0.1725. The strain versus polarization (S-P) curves measured from 30 degrees C to 130 degrees C can be well fitted based on a quadratic relation, suggesting the dominating role of the electrostrictive effect. The longitudinal electrostrictive coefficient Q(33) for this system ranges from 0.0254 m(4)/C-2 to 0.0318 m(4)/C-2. Our results suggest that (1-x)(PMN-PT)-xBZN ferroelectric ceramics are potential candidates for applications in capacitors and high-precision displacement actuators.