Abstract
The direct conversion of electrical energy to mechanical work by a material is relevant to a number of applications. This is illustrated by ferroelectric ‘relaxors’1,2,3,4 such as Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 (PMN-PT; refs 5, 6): these materials exhibit a giant electromechanical (piezoelectric) response that is finding use in ultrasonic4 and medical applications, as well as in telecommunications. The origins of this effect are, however, still unclear. Here we show that the giant electromechanical response in PMN-PT (and potentially other ferroelectric relaxors) is the manifestation of critical points that define a line in the phase diagram of this system. Specifically, in the electric-field–temperature–composition phase diagram of PMN-PT (the composition being varied by changing the PT concentration), a first-order paraelectric–ferroelectric phase transition terminates in a line of critical points where the piezoelectric coefficient is maximum. Above this line, supercritical evolution is observed. On approaching the critical point, both the energy cost and the electric field necessary to induce ferroelectric polarization rotations decrease significantly, thus explaining the giant electromechanical response of these relaxors.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Cross, I. E. Relaxor ferroelectrics. Ferroelectrics 76, 241–267 (1987)
Cross, I. E. in Ferroelectric Ceramics (eds Setter, N. & Colla, E. L.) 1–85 (Birkhauser, Berlin, 1993)
Samara, S. A. The relaxation properties of compositionally disordered ABO3 perovskites. J. Phys Condens. Matter 15, R367–R411 (2003)
Uchino, K. Piezoelectric Actuators and Ultrasonic Motors (Kluwer Academic, Boston, 1996)
Colla, V. E., Yushin, N. K. & Viehland, D. Dielectric properties of (PMN)1-x(PT)x single crystals for various electrical and thermal histories. J. Appl. Phys. 83, 3298–3304 (1998)
Xu, G., Viehland, D., Li, J. F., Gehring, P. M. & Shirane, G. Evidence of decoupled lattice distortions and ferroelectric polarization in the relaxor system PMN-xPT. Phys. Rev. B 68, 2410–2414 (2003)
Höchli, U. T., Knorr, K. & Loidl, A. Orientational glasses. Adv. Phys. 39, 405–615 (1990)
Park, S. E. & Shrout, T. R. Ultrahigh strain and piezoelectric behaviour in relaxor based ferroelectric single crystal. J. Appl. Phys. 82, 1804–1811 (2003)
Fu, H. & Cohen, R. E. Polarization rotation mechanism for ultrahigh electromechanical response in single crystal piezoelectric. Nature 403, 281–283 (2000)
Li, J. Y., Rogan, R. C., Üstündag, E. & Bhattacharya, K. Domain switching in polycrystalline ferroelectric ceramics. Nature Mater. 41, 776–781 (2005)
Davis, M., Damjanovic, D. & Setter, N. Electric-field-, temperature-, and stress-induced phase transitions in relaxor ferroelectric single crystals. Phys. Rev. B 73, 014115 (2006)
Bai, F. et al. X-ray and neutron diffraction investigations of the structural phase transformation sequence under electric field in 0.7Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)-0.3PbTiO3 crystal. J. Appl. Phys. 96, 1620–1627 (2004)
Yao, H., Ema, K. & Garland, C. W. Nonadiabatic scanning calorimeter. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 69, 172–178 (1998)
Durand, D., Denoyer, F., Lefur, D., Currat, R. & Bernard, L. Neutron diffraction study of sodium nitrite in an applied electric field. J. Phys. (Paris) Lett. 44, L207–L216 (1983)
Yao, H., Chan, T. & Garland, C. W. Smectic-C–smectic-I critical point in a liquid crystal mixture: Static and dynamic thermal behavior. Phys. Rev. E 51, 4585–4597 (1995)
Kutnjak, Z. et al. Critical point for the blue-phase-III—Isotropic phase transition in chiral liquid crystals. Phys. Rev. E 53, 4955–4963 (1996)
Wu, Z. & Cohen, R. E. Pressure-induced anomalous phase transitions and colossal enhancement of piezoelectricity in PbTiO3 . Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 037601 (2005)
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the Slovenian Research Agency.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
Reprints and permissions information is available at npg.nature.com/reprintsandpermissions. The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kutnjak, Z., Petzelt, J. & Blinc, R. The giant electromechanical response in ferroelectric relaxors as a critical phenomenon. Nature 441, 956–959 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04854
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04854
This article is cited by
-
Tunable and parabolic piezoelectricity in hafnia under epitaxial strain
Nature Communications (2024)
-
Giant piezoelectricity driven by Thouless pump in conjugated polymers
npj Computational Materials (2024)
-
Giant dynamic electromechanical response via field driven pseudo-ergodicity in nonergodic relaxors
Nature Communications (2023)
-
Piezoelectric response of disordered lead-based relaxor ferroelectrics
Communications Materials (2023)
-
Polarization behavior in a compositionally graded relaxor–ferroelectric crystal visualized by angle-resolved polarized Raman mapping
Communications Physics (2023)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.