Recent Developments in Piezoelectric Crystals

Piezoelectric materials are essential parts of the electronics and electrical equipment used for consumer and industrial applications, such as ultrasonic piezoelectric transducers, sensors, actuators, transformers, and resonators. In this review, the development of piezoelectric materials and the figures of merit for various electromechanical applications are surveyed, focusing on piezoelectric crystals, i.e., the high-performance relaxor-PbTiO3-based perovskite ferroelectric crystals and nonferroelectric high-temperature piezoelectric crystals. The uniqueness of these crystals is discussed with respect to different usages. Finally, the existing challenges and perspective for the piezoelectric crystals are discussed, with an emphasis on the temperature-dependent properties, from cryogenic temperatures up to the ultrahigh-temperature usage range.