Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃- Pb(Ni_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃-PbTiO₃ Crystals by Solid State Growth

A small piece of <110> orientated relaxor-based ferroelectric Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) single crystals was embedded in Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-Pb(Ni1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 (PMN-PNN-PT) polycrystalline matrix to form the fully dense disk by spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique. Specimens were subsequently annealed to promote the boundary migration of the template single-crystal through a process termed as solid-state single crystal growth. It was found that the addition of excess 5 wt% PbO can promote the crystal growth, and the 2D morphology with V-shaped single crystals of PMN-PNN-PT were also observed. The possible growth mechanism was discussed.