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Piezoelectric materials enable the conversion of mechanical energy into electrical energy and vice-versa. Ultrahigh piezoelectricity has been only observed in single crystals. Realization of piezoelectric ceramics with longitudinal piezoelectric constant (d33) close to 2000 pC N-1, which combines single crystal-like high properties and ceramic-like cost effectiveness, large-scale manufacturing, and machinability will be a milestone in advancement of piezoelectric ceramic materials. Here, guided by phenomenological models and phase-field simulations that provide conditions for flattening the energy landscape of polarization, a synergistic design strategy is demonstrated that exploits compositionally driven local structural heterogeneity and microstructural grain orientation/texturing to provide record piezoelectricity in ceramics. This strategy is demonstrated on [001]PC-textured and Eu3+-doped Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) ceramics that exhibit the highest piezoelectric coefficient (small-signal d33 of up to 1950 pC N-1 and large-signal d33* of ≈2100 pm V-1) among all the reported piezoelectric ceramics. Extensive characterization conducted using high-resolution microscopy and diffraction techniques in conjunction with the computational models reveals the underlying mechanisms governing the piezoelectric performance. Further, the impact of losses on the electromechanical coupling is identified, which plays major role in suppressing the percentage of piezoelectricity enhancement, and the fundamental understanding of loss in this study sheds light on further enhancement of piezoelectricity. These results on cost-effective and record performance piezoelectric ceramics will launch a new generation of piezoelectric applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dielectric, ferroelectric, and piezoelectric properties of both random and textured Mn--PMN--PZT ceramics were characterized under uniaxial stress. Textured ceramics exhibit a large piezoelectric response under uniaxial pressure; the bias field piezoelectric constant is higher than 700 pC/N when pressure is below 50 MPa. Moreover, textured ceramics also show better depolarization resistance under uniaxial stress fields; overall, 30% of the origin performance will remain when stress approaches 200 MPa, but for random ceramics, it is only 10%. The ferroelectricity of both random and textured ceramics is suppressed by uniaxial compression. Ec, Pr, Ei, and dissipation energy all decrease with increasing uniaxial stress. In addition, phase-field simulation was used to better understand the polarization-changing effects on piezoelectric and dielectric performance. The uniaxial stress causes polarization rotation and increases the angle between polarization and the electric field, which is an important factor leading to the increase of the dielectric constant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Design of a projecting‐receiving dual‐purpose transducer is challenging due to the difficulty of synthesizing piezoelectric materials with combinatory "soft" properties (high piezoelectric coefficient d) and "hard" properties (low dielectric loss and high mechanical quality factor Qm). In this study, we provide a different perspective to address this challenge via exploiting single‐crystal‐like electrostriction coefficient Q33 through the fabrication of grain oriented or textured "hard" piezoelectric ceramics. Mn‐doped 0.27Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3–0.41Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–0.32PbTiO3 (Mn:PIN–PMN–PT) piezoelectric ceramics with a high [0 0 1]c texture fraction of 99% were synthesized, which exhibit three times greater piezoelectric properties (d33 ∼ 828 pC/N) than random counterparts (d33 ∼ 251 pC/N), while maintaining low loss (tan δ ∼ 0.5%, Qm = 443). According to the formula d33=2Q33Prε33${d}_{{\mathrm{33}}}{\mathrm{\ = \ 2}}{Q}_{{\mathrm{33}}}\ {P}_{\mathrm{r}}\ {\varepsilon }_{{\mathrm{33}}}$, the large improvement of d33 in textured ceramics is mainly due to a doubling increase in dielectric constant ε33 and Q33 (∼0.057 m4/C2). Notably, the Q33 exhibits remarkable similarity to that of PMN–PT single crystals, further contributing to the enhanced piezoelectric performance of textured ceramics. Phase field model of ferroelectrics was performed to understand the texturing on Q33 and elucidate the underlying mechanism at the domain level. The textured ceramics exhibit excellent combinatory "soft" and "hard" properties, which are the promising materials for developing projecting‐receiving dual‐purpose transducers with high efficiency and high sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]