Induced growth of Pb0.97La0.02(Zr0.66Sn0.27Ti0.07)O3 antiferroelectric single crystals with a platinum wire

Relaxor antiferroelectric (Pb,La)(Zr,Sn,Ti)O3 (PLZST) with the composition near the morphotropic phase boundary shows excellent electrical properties. However, the crystal growth of PLZST is limited by the incongruent melting of the materials. Crystal growth of PLZST was induced by a platinum wire in the flux solution with 50 wt% PbO-PbF2-B2O3 as a solvent. The obtained PLZST single crystals are optical transparent with light yellow color. The size of the crystals in regular rectangular shape varies from 0.5 mm to 1 mm. The PLZST single crystals exhibit tetragonal phase structure. The element contents of the crystals were measured by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry. The results show that the composition of as-grown crystals is a little bit deviated from the starting composition. The single crystals show two dielectric peaks at 115 degrees C and 182 degrees C, corresponding to antiferroelectric-ferroelectric and ferroelectric-paraelectric phase transitions. The dielectric data of as-grown crystals indicate there is typical relaxor behavior near 182 degrees C. The value of relaxor factor n is 1.49642.