Effects of alternating current poling on the dielectric and piezoelectric properties of Pb(In0.5Nb0.5)O3–PbTiO3 crystals with a high Curie temperature

The alternating current poling (ACP) method has been become more and more popular recently because of its advantages of being low cost, time saving and highly efficient. Few ACP studies have focused on relaxor-PT crystals with a high coercive field and high Curie temperature or the effects of ACP on intrinsic and extrinsic contributions. The effects of the electric field, frequency, and number of cycles of ACP on the piezoelectric and dielectric properties of 〈001〉-oriented Pb(In0.5Nb0.5)O3–PbTiO3 ferroelectric crystals were studied. The dielectric permittivity e33T/e0 and piezoelectric coefficient d33 of an ACP sample are 3070 and 1400 pC N−1, respectively, which are 14% and 18% larger than those of a DCP sample. Rayleigh analysis reveals that both intrinsic and extrinsic contributions are enhanced after ACP. The poling electric field, frequency and cycle number can influence the intrinsic and extrinsic contributions. The intrinsic contribution is significantly affected by the poling electric field, and cycle number, but it is not very sensitive to frequency, while the poling electric field, frequency and cycle number are very important for the extrinsic contribution. This work demonstrates that the uniform domain patterns are a critical factor for the enhancement of the piezoelectric properties.