Abstract
We have investigated the ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties of novel (Bi1/2Na1/2)TiO3-based solid-solution ceramics. Ba(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3, which is expected to show a high dielectric performance due to structural and charge inhomogeneities originating from B-site randomness, is selected as the end member for the solid solutions with BNT. The dielectric/polarization/piezoelectric properties of (1-x)(Bi1/2Na1/2)TiO3-xBa(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3 (BNT-BMN) ceramics were investigated. At x>0.03, BNT-BMN showed dielectric dispersions typically observed in relaxor ferroelectrics. A clear piezoelectric butterfly loop was obtained with a strain maximum/electric-field maximum (Smax/Emax) of 210 pm/V, which was much larger than the that of BNT. These results suggest that BMN acts as a promising end member of the solid solution with BNT.