Large piezoelectricity in Pb-free 0.96(K0.5Na0.5)0.95Li0.05Nb0.93Sb0.07O3−0.04BaZrO3 ceramic: A perspective from microstructure

Abstract

We employ transmission electron microscopy to explore the reason for large piezoelectricity (d33≈400pC/N) in a Pb-free 0.96(K0.5Na0.5)0.95Li0.05Nb0.93Sb0.07O3 −0.04BaZrO3 ceramic from microstructure. The result shows that the high piezoelectricity corresponds to a miniaturized nanodomain configuration in a domain hierarchy. The nanodomains disappear on heating accompanied by a reduction in d33 value. Further convergent beam electron diffraction study reveals a coexistence of tetragonal and orthorhombic phase, which indicates that large piezoelectricity of KNLNS0.07-BZ may stem from easy polarization rotation due to low polarization anisotropy on the tetragonal-orthorhombic phase boundary.