Giant Piezoelectric Properties and Photoluminescence Enhancement for Pr 3+ Doped PMN-PT Transparent Ceramics

Pr3+ doped 0.70Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-0.30PbTiO3 (Pr-PMN-PT) transparent ceramics were prepared by hot press sintering method and their electrical and optic properties were investigated. The results showed that Pr-PMN-PT ceramics had very high transparency due to the small domain size. The ceramics exhibited giant piezoelectric properties with quasi-static piezoelectric constant d33=975 pC/N and effective piezoelectric constant d33* =1214 pm/V. Moreover, the transparent Pr-PMN-PT ceramics showed excellent photoluminescence property. The intensity of emission peak at 650nm for transparent Pr-PMN-PT is about 7 times higher than that for opaque Pr-PMN-PT ceramics. The high transparency, giant piezoelectric properties and good photoluminescence make the Pr-PMN-PT ceramics attractive for many novel electro-optic applications.