High piezoelectricity performance in PSBZT ceramic for ultrasonic transducer

Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics possess great potential for practical applications and thus improving their piezoelectric properties is crucial. Pb0.99-xSm0.01BaxZr0.53Ti0.47O3 (PSBZT) ceramics with high Curie temperature and excellent piezoelectric properties were fabricated via a conventional solid-state method, and the effect of Ba2+ doping on the structural, dielectric, piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties was studied in detail. It is shown that doping of Ba2+ significantly enhanced the piezoelectric properties of PSZT, the maximum d(33)similar to 533 pC/N and T-c similar to 361 degrees C at x = 0.02 were acquired. Furthermore, PSZT and PSBZT ceramics were used to prepare single element ultrasonic transducers, and their performance were compared and evaluated. The results demonstrate that the PSBZT ceramic-based transducer possesses better sensitivity and bandwidth than the PSZT ceramic-based transducer.