Absence of piezoelectric enhancement around the morphotropic phase boundaries for Bi1−xNdxFeO3 ceramics

• Main Authors: P. Z. Chen, Y. Q. Li, X. Li, S. H. Zheng, M. F. Liu, L. Lin, Z. B. Yan, X. P. Jiang, J.-M. Liu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: AIP Publishing LLC 2020-06-01
• Series: AIP Advances
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0010568

BiFeO3 has been receiving continuous attention for its excellent ferroelectric and multiferroic properties. Nevertheless, the piezoelectricity as a complementary property of ferroelectricity remains less addressed for BiFeO3 at least in a single phase form. In this work, we investigate the piezoelectric behaviors of bulk Bi1−xNdxFeO3 ceramics, given that the Nd-substitution may trigger structural phase transitions from the R3c phase to the Pna21 phase and eventually toward the non-polar Pnma phase. It is revealed that the piezoelectric coefficient d33 does increase with the increasing Nd content x inside the R3c phase region. However, no d33-enhancement across the R3c–Pna21 boundary region and the Pna21–Pnma boundary region is identified, suggesting no positive correlation between the piezoelectric coefficient and the possible morphotropic phase boundaries. The observed d33-enhancement inside the R3c phase region should be attributed to the remarkably reduced domain size and release of pinned domain wall motion by defects.