High Performance Relaxor-Based Ferroelectric Single Crystals for Ultrasonic Transducer Applications

Relaxor-based ferroelectric single crystals Pb(Mg(1/3)Nb(2/3))O(3)-PbTiO(3) (PMN-PT) have drawn much attention in the ferroelectric field because of their excellent piezoelectric properties and high electromechanical coupling coefficients (d(33)∼2000 pC/N, kt∼60%) near the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB). Ternary Pb(In(1/2)Nb(1/2))O(3)-Pb(Mg(1/3)Nb(2/3))O(3)-PbTiO(3) (PIN-PMN-PT) single crystals also possess outstanding performance comparable with PMN-PT single crystals, but have higher phase transition temperatures (rhombohedral to tetragonal T(rt), and tetragonal to cubic T(c)) and larger coercive field E(c). Therefore, these relaxor-based single crystals have been extensively employed for ultrasonic transducer applications. In this paper, an overview of our work and perspectives on using PMN-PT and PIN-PMN-PT single crystals for ultrasonic transducer applications is presented. Various types of single-element ultrasonic transducers, including endoscopic transducers, intravascular transducers, high-frequency and high-temperature transducers fabricated using the PMN-PT and PIN-PMN-PT crystals and their 2-2 and 1-3 composites are reported. Besides, the fabrication and characterization of the array transducers, such as phased array, cylindrical shaped linear array, high-temperature linear array, radial endoscopic array, and annular array, are also addressed.