Piezoelectric properties of vanadium-substituted strontium bismuth niobate

Vanadium-substituted strontium bismuth niobate, SrBi2Nb1.95V0.05O9 (SBNV), ceramics were synthesized by a low-temperature process, and the detailed piezoelectric properties of the SBNV ceramics were characterized. Dense SBNV ceramics were obtained at a sintering temperature of 950 degrees C, which is 200 degrees C lower than that for nonsubstituted (SBN) ceramics. With the substitution of vanadium cations for mobium the ferroelectrie D-E hysteresis loops were observed at room temperature and the remanent polarization, P-r, and coercive field, E-c, obtained were 5.4 mu C/cm(2) and 105 kV/cm, respectively. The independent electromechanical coupling factors' obtained, which were characterized by the resonance-antiresonance method, were as follows: k(p) = 0.074, k(31) = 0.045, k(33) = 0.175, k(15) = 0.106, and k(t) = 0.140. The mechanical quality factor, Q(m), of the SBNV ceramics in the (33)-mode was 5500, which was about three times that of SBN. The temperature dependences of the resonance frequency (TCF) in the length extensional vibration mode of the SBNV and SBN ceramics were 42.1 ppm/degrees C and 34.6 ppm/degrees C, respectively.