Piezoelectric response of single-crystal PbZr1-xTixO3 near morphotropic phase boundary predicted by phase-field simulation

The piezoelectric property of hypothetic single-crystal PbZr(1-x)TixO(3) (PZT) is studied using phase-field simulations. The dependence of piezoelectric coefficient (d(33)) on PbTiO3 compositions (x) near the morphotropic phase boundary of PZT was obtained. Using the existing thermodynamic description of PZT, it is shown that d(33) reaches a peak value of 720 pC/N at x=0.47 which is more than three times of that for the ceramic counterpart. The relation between the domain structure of the poled PZT single crystals and the enhancement of d(33) near the MPB composition is discussed. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3530443]