Enhancement of pyroelectricity in Mn-doped (011) 71Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–6PbZrO3–23PbTiO3 single crystals

Single crystals of 71PMN-6PZ-23PT [71Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-6PbZrO3-23PbTiO3] oriented along the thickness direction (011) with and without Mn doping were grown by a solid-state single-crystal growth method, and pyroelectric properties of the crystals were investigated. Though the pyroelectric coefficient of a Mn doped crystal is not significantly higher than the un-doped one at room temperature (RT), a large enhancement was observed after 0.7 mol. % Mn doping at high temperatures (>100 °C). Furthermore, the FoMs for practical applications at RT, the Mn doped crystal showed large enhancement as compared to the un-doped one. The presented single crystals also yielded excellent figure of merit (FoM) values for pyroelectricity: Fi, Fv, and FD were 3.5 × 10−10 m V−1, 0.02 m2 C−1, and 2.68 × 10−5 Pa−1/2, respectively, at RT. The large pyroelectric response in the Mn-doped single crystal is attributed to the large ferroelectric polarization and low dielectric constant and dielectric loss. The demonstrated pyroelectric response in the Mn-doped 71PMN-6PZ-23PT single crystal shows that it exhibits excellent potential for various thermal sensor applications.