Actuation mechanisms in mixed-phase K0.5Bi0.5TiO3-BiFeO3-PbTiO3 ceramics

We report an in-situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction study of K_0.5Bi_0.5TiO₃-BiFeO₃-PbTiO₃ ceramics, which exhibit a T_c of around 450 °C. The electromechanical actuation mechanisms comprise contributions from coexisting tetragonal and rhombohedral phases. The tetragonal {200} grain family exhibited the highest effective lattice strain, up to 8.2 × 10^?3 at 5 kV/mm. Strong strain anisotropy in the tetragonal phase and field-induced intergranular stresses facilitate a partial transformation from tetragonal (high strain anisotropy) to rhombohedral (low strain anisotropy) at high electric field levels, with an average linear transformation strain of -1.54 × 10^-3. The domain switching behavior was effectively enhanced in both tetragonal and rhombohedral phases after the phase transformation, due to the release of intergranular stress. This observed self-adapting mechanism in tuning intergranular stress through partial phase switching in the morphotropic KBT-BF-PT composition with large lattice distortion could also be exploited in other perovskite systems in order to achieve high performance high temperature piezoelectric ceramics.