Effect of the Crystal Structure on the Piezoelectricity of [001]-Textured (Na, K)(Nb, Sb)O3-SrZrO3-(Bi, Ag)ZrO3 Lead-Free Piezoelectric Thick Film

An amount of 3.0 mol% NaNbO3 seeds was used to align the grains of 0.96(Na0.5K0.5)(Nb0.93Sb0.07)O3-(0.04−x)SrZrO3-x(Bi0.5Ag0.5)ZrO3 [NKNS-(0.04−x)SZ-xBAZ] thick films (0.0 ≤ x ≤ 0.04) along the [001] direction. All the textured thick films had large Lotgering factors (>95%). The textured NKNS-0.02SZ-0.02BAZ thick film has a rhombohedral-orthorhombic-tetragonal (R-O-T) structure with a large proportion of the R-O structure (>80%) and nanodomains (0.7 nm in width and 6 nm in length). This thick film exhibited a large d33 value (760 ± 20 pC/N), kp value (0.58) and strain (0.16% at 4.0 kV/mm), with good temperature stability and fatigue properties. The high piezoelectricity of this thick film can be attributed to its high degree of texturing, optimized domain configuration, and the presence of nanodomains. The piezoelectric ceramic with a large d15/d33 value showed a large d33 value after [001] texturing because of the easy rotation of the spontaneous polarizations. Hence, the d15/d33 value can be used to select piezoelectric ceramics with large d33 values after [001] texturing.