Characterization of the high-power piezoelectric properties of PMnN-PZT ceramics using constant voltage and pulse drive methods

In this paper we investigate the powder size dependences of the high-power piezoelectric properties in Pb[(Zr0.52Ti0.48)(0.95)(Mn1/3Nb2/3)(0.05)]O-3 (PMnN-PZT) ceramics using the constant voltage method and the pulse drive technique. It has been demonstrated that coarse powders enlarge the grain sizes of the sintered ceramics and tend to deteriorate the high-power piezoelectric properties. The vibration velocity and temperature rise during vibration are measured with the constant voltage method. Both exhibit good characteristics upon reduction in powder size. For the same sintered ceramics, the mechanical quality factors are estimated at high-power level using the pulse drive method, which can depress the temperature rise during vibration. It is found that the larger vibration velocity originates from the stability of the mechanical quality factor at high-power level. These phenomena may be explained by consideration of both combination of grain boundaries and effect of grain size.