Large strain in poled and aged Mn-doped Pb(Mn1/3Sb2/3)O3–Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 ferroelectric ceramics under a low electric field

Reversible domain switching in aged acceptor-doped ferroelectric ceramics is a powerful method to achieve electrostrain due to the exchange of nonequal crystalline axes of domains. Nevertheless, previous work suggested that the strain obtained via reversible domain switching in unpoled ceramics was much lower than theoretical value. In this paper, we demonstrate that the strain in poled and aged acceptor-doped ferroelectric ceramics can be significantly enhanced when the driving electric field is perpendicular to the poling direction, originating from the exchange of nonequel crystalline axes of more domains. Consequently, the electrostrain of poled and aged 0.1 wt% MnO2-doped 0.05Pb(Mn1/3Sb2/3)O3−0.50PbZrO3−0.45PbTiO3 could reach 0.225% which was 4.17 times larger than that of unpoled sample under a low electric field of 15 kV cm−1. Moreover, the corresponding normalized strain d33* reached 1500 pm V−1 which significantly exceeded the values reported in ferroelectric ceramics. Our work provide a general effective method to enhance the electrostrain behavior via reversible domain switching in aged acceptor-doped ferroelectric ceramics.