Enhancement of the electrical-field-induced strain in lead-free Bi0.5(Na,K)0.5TiO3-based piezoelectric ceramics: Role of the phase transition

In this work, a strong enhancement of the electric-field-induced strain in Bi0.5(Na,K)0.5TiO3-based ceramics was observed via lithium(Li) addition. The Li-added Bi0.5(Na,K)0.5TiO3-based ceramics exhibited a strain of 0.40% under an electric field of 6 kV/mm, which was almost twice the value without the Li dopant (0.21%). We obtained the highest Smax/Emax value of 668 pm/V for 4-mol% Li addition, which was due to the phase transition from pseudocubic to rhombohedral symmetry and/or to the distorted tetragonal structure. We suggest that controlling the phase transition in ferroelectric materials is a way to enhance the electric-field-induced giant strain and that the phase transition from the non-polar phase to the polar phase results in a giant electric-fieldinduced strain, which overcomes the result due to the phase transition from the polar phase to the non-polar phase and/or the distorted structure. We expect our work to open new ways to enhance the electric-filed-induced giant strain to a value that is comparable to the value for Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT)-based ceramics.