Enhanced electromechanical properties and phase transition temperatures in [001] textured Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3-Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 ternary ceramics

[001] oriented relaxor based ternary Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O-3-Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O-3-PbTiO3 (PIN-PMN-PT) ceramics were fabricated by templated grain growth. The effects of BaTiO3 template amount on the [001] orientation degree, microstructure, and resulting changes in dielectric, piezoelectric, and ferroelectric properties of PIN-PMN-PT were investigated. A high [001] texture fraction of 93% was achieved in the PIN-PMN-PT ceramics at 5 vol. % BaTiO3 template. Giant electromechanical properties (d(33)* = 1555 pC/N, d(33) = 824 pC/N, and k(p) = 0.81) and high ferroelectric properties (E-c = 8.3 kV/cm and P-r = 31 mu C/cm(2)) were obtained from those highly textured ceramics, which are much superior to those of randomly oriented counterpart. Furthermore, the textured ternary ceramics exhibited remarkably improved phase transition temperatures (Tr-t = 120 degrees C and T-c = 203 degrees C) compared with previously reported binary PMN-PT textured ceramics. The domain structure was characterized by piezoelectric force microscopy, and domain contribution to the enhanced piezoelectric response in the textured PIN-PMN-PT ceramics was analyzed. The high-quality textured ternary ceramics are very promising for new-generation electromechanical devices with high performance and wide temperature usage range. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.