Composition and Orientation Dependence of the Electrical Properties and Domain Structure for NBT-KBT Single Crystals

Abstract

In order to elucidate the nano mechanism responsible for the macroscopic ferroelectric response of A-site disordered Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3-K0.5Bi0.5TiO3 (NBT-KBT) single crystals, the composition, electric-field and orientation induced dynamic domain evolution was investigated by piezoresponse force microscope (PFM) systematically. Results indicated the KBT contents increasing to morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) led to decrease the local coercive field, consist with the macroscopic ferroelectric performance. Compared to the (001) oriented sample, (111) oriented crystal shows a lower coercive field in the local regions. The different performance of in-situ temperature-dependent domain characterization illustrated the variation of electronic transmission capacity in (001) and (111) orientations of NBT-KBT.