Enhanced piezoelectric properties of solution-modified Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3-(Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3 thick films

High-quality piezoelectric 0.5Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3-0.5(Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3 thick films with the thickness of 6 μm were prepared by screen printing with solution infiltration process. The modified films near the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) showed very dense and homogenous microstructure with large grain size, and presented markedly enhanced piezoelectric properties with large remanent polarization of 22 μC/cm2 and a longitudinal piezoelectric constant d33 of 220 pC/N, which were over two times higher than those of the screen printed films without the solution infiltration process. The excellent piezoelectric properties comparable to the case of lead-based thick films, make the modified films a promising candidate for practical applications in lead-free microdevices such as piezoelectric microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).