Enhancing piezoelectric properties of PSN-PMN-PT ceramics through a synergistic design

This work employs a synergistic design strategy combining texture engineering and local structural heterogeneity to optimize the piezoelectric properties of ternary Pb(Sc_1/2Nb_1/2)O₃-Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃-PbTiO₃ (PSN-PMN-PT) ceramics. The fabricated [001]_C-oriented 1.5 mol.% Sm₂O₃ doped PSN-PMN-PT (1.5Sm-T) textured ceramics demonstrate a remarkably high F₀₀₁ of up to 98.6 %, coupled with significantly improved dielectric and piezoelectric properties: d₃₃∼1080 pC/N, ε_r∼2856, g₃₃∼42.7 × 10⁻³ Vm/N, d₃₃×g₃₃∼46.1 × 10⁻¹² m²/N, and d₃₃*∼1375 pm/V@8 kV/cm. It is found that the high piezoelectric performance originates from the dual function of easy PNRs rotation induced by texturing engineering and increased heterogeneous polar regions caused by Sm³⁺ doping. Rayleigh analysis confirms that intrinsic contribution predominantly drives the high piezoelectric performance of 1.5Sm-T ceramics. The intrinsic piezoelectric coefficient $d_{33}^{\mathrm{init}}$and its orientation dependence, as investigated by first-principles calculations, further verify that the design strategy combining Sm³⁺ doping and [001]_C texturing is responsible for the high piezoelectric response theoretically. Our results demonstrate that 1.5Sm-T ceramics show great promise for electromechanical devices applications.