Origin of the high piezoelectric and optical properties of Pr-PMN-PT100x/70/30 transparent ceramics

Piezoelectric ceramics with large piezoelectricity and high transparency are quite challenging due to the light scattering from domain walls. In this work, Pr3+ doped Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.70Ti0.30O3 (Pr-PMN-PT) ceramics prepared by hot press sintering in oxygen atmosphere showed very high transparency, excellent photoluminescence property and large piezoelectricity simultaneously. The transmittance of Pr-PMN-PT is 69.7% in the near infrared wavelength region. The intensity of emission peak at 650 nm for transparent Pr-PMN-PT is approximately 7 times higher than that for opaque Pr-PMN-PT ceramics. The Pr-PMN-PT ceramics exhibited very large piezoelectric properties with quasi-static piezoelectric constant d33=1220 pC/N and effective piezoelectric constantd33*=2040 pm/V. The high transparency, large piezoelectric properties and good photoluminescence make the Pr-PMN-PT ceramics very attractive for many novel electro-optic applications. The origin of the excellent electrical and optic properties of Pr-PMN-PT ceramics was further investigated and it was found that they were strongly correlated with the nano domain structure in Pr-PMN-PT ceramics.