Local structural heterogeneity induced large flexoelectricity in Sm-doped PMN–PT ceramics
Zezong Yu, Zhiguo Wang, Shengwen Shu, Tingfang Tian, Wenbin Huang, Chunchun Li, Shanming Ke, Longlong Shu
Abstract
The recently discovered large flexoelectricity in relaxor ferroelectrics has rekindled considerable research interest. In this paper, several Sm-doped Pb(Mg2/3Nb1/3)O3–xPbTiO3 (PMN–xPT) ferroelectric ceramics were prepared and the relationship between flexoelectricity and PT content was systematically investigated. The largest flexoelectric response (∼550 μC/m) was observed in the Sm-doped PMN–32PT ceramic, which should be accounted for in the reorientation of the polar nanoregions. At room temperature, the flexoelectric response of Sm-doped PMN–32PT ceramic is an order of magnitude higher than that of the parent PMN–PT ceramics and even 50% higher than that of Bi–PMN–32PT ceramic (∼300 μC/m). Such a big increment is directly related to the greater local structural heterogeneity caused by Sm3+ ions into PMN–PT. Therefore, the result presented in this paper verifies that introducing local structural heterogeneity is a feasible approach to achieve ultrahigh flexoelectricity.