Large electric field induced strain in new lead-free binary (Bi1/2Na1/2)TiO3-Ba(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3 solid solution

A new lead-free binary solid solution (1-x)(Bi1/2Na1/2)TiO3-x -Ba(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3[(1-x)BNT-xBZN] was fabricated by a two-step solid oxide reaction route. The microstructure, electrical properties and field-induced strain as a function of the BZN content were investigated systematically. The results showed that, as BZN added, the solid solution undergone a transformation from rhombohedral to pseudocubic phases, and a morphotropic phase boundary occurred around x = 0.05. Meanwhile, the ergodic PNRs emerged at x = 0.05 and the completely ergodic state occurred for x ≥ 0.06. Especially, for the x = 0.055 sample, a large field-induced strain of 0.40% under an external electric field of 8 kV/mm was obtained due to the coexistence of nonergodic and ergodic states.