Single crystal PMN-0.33PT/epoxy 1-3 composites for ultrasonic transducer applications

Lead magnesium niobate-lead titanate 0.67Pb (Mg/sub 1/3/Nb/sub 2/3/)O/sub 3/-0.33PbTiO/sub 3/ (PMN-0.33PT, abbreviated as PMN-PT) single crystals were used to fabricate PMN-PT/epoxy 1-3 composites with different volume fractions of PMN-PT ranging from 0.4 to 0.8. The electromechanical properties of the 1-3 composites were determined by the resonance technique. Theoretical modeling of the 1-3 composites matched quite well with the measured material properties. It was demonstrated that the thickness electromechanical coupling coefficients of the composites could reach as high as 0.8. A 2.4 MHz plane ultrasonic transducer was fabricated using a PMN-PT/epoxy 1-3 composite with 0.37 volume fraction of PMN-PT. It shows a -6 dB bandwidth of /spl sim/61% and an insertion loss of -14 dB.