Orientation dependence of dielectric and piezoelectric properties of tetragonal relaxor ferroelectric single crystals by alternate current poling

Piezoelectric and dielectric properties of [001] and [110]-oriented tetragonal Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)-Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)-PbTiO3 (PIN-PMN-PT) single crystals (SCs) after alternate current poling (ACP) were investigated. Compared with direct current poling (DCP), the piezoelectric and dielectric properties of [001]-oriented samples have no improvement, while the piezoelectric coefficient d33 and free dielectric constant eT33/e0 of [110]-oriented samples increase by 32% and 26%, respectively. The domain was observed on (001) and (110) faces of [110]-oriented samples. The enhancement of the piezoelectric performance is attributed to the high density of domain wall, increase of distorted regions between 90 degrees domains, and monoclinic phase. Compared with DCP, both intrinsic and extrinsic contributions enhance after ACP though the Rayleigh analysis. This work indicates that ACP is an effective way to enhance piezoelectric properties of non-polar axis oriented relaxor-PT ferroelectric SCs.