Electric Field-Induced Giant Strain and Photoluminescence-Enhancement Effect in Rare-Earth Modified Lead-Free Piezoelectric Ceramics

In this work, an electric field-induced giant strain response and excellent photoluminescence-enhancement effect was obtained in a rare-earth ion modified lead-free piezoelectric system. Pr3+-modified 0.93(Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3-0.07BaTiO(3) ceramics were designed and fabricated by a conventional fabrication process. The ferroelectric, dielectric, piezoelectric, and photoluminescence performances were systematically studied, and a schematic phase diagram was constructed. It was found the Pr3+ substitution induced a transition from ferroelectric a long-range order structure to a relaxor pseudocubic phase with short-range coherence structure. Around a critical composition of 0.8 mol % Pr3+, a giant reversible strain of similar to 0.43% with a normalized strain S-max/E-max of up to 770 pm/V was obtained at similar to 5 kV/mm. Furthermore, the in situ electric field enhanced the photoluminescence intensity by similar to 40% in the proposed system. These findings have great potential for actuator and multifunctional device applications, which may also open up a range of new applications.