Single-crystal 0.7Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–0.3PbTiO3/epoxy 1–3 piezoelectric composites prepared by the lamination technique

In present work, 〈0 0 1〉-oriented 0.7Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–0.3PbTiO3 (PMNT30%)/epoxy 1–3 piezoelectric composites with Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–PbTiO3 (PMNT) volume fraction ranging from 0.25 to 0.7 were prepared using the lamination technique. Compared to the dice and fill method which is commonly adopted, this technique makes full use of the size of as-grown PMNT single crystal to fabricate piezoelectric composites with larger dimensions, and greatly reduces the damage to PMNT single crystal as well. Results show that prepared PMNT30%/epoxy 1–3 piezoelectric composites, as well as the composites prepared by dice and fill method, own superior piezoelectric properties to PMNT single crystal with higher thickness electromechanical coupling coefficient kt, moderate relative dielectric constant ɛr and comparatively low acoustic impedance Z. These make the PMNT30%/epoxy 1–3 piezoelectric composites become a potential in ultrasonic transducer applications.