Oxygen Atmosphere Sintering Enhances Density and High-Power Performance of Mn-Doped Textured PMN-PZT Ceramics

High-power applications demand piezoceramics that combine large piezoelectric strain coefficients d₃₃ and low mechanical loss (high Q_m). In this study, [001]-textured Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃-PbZrO₃-PbTiO₃ (PMN-PZT) ceramics are fabricated using BaTiO₃ seeds to induce grain orientation and manganese doping for hardening. Notably, by leveraging the rapid oxygen transport mechanism within the perovskite lattice, ceramics sintered in an oxygen atmosphere achieves a high relative density of 98%-99%, significantly exceeding the 95.6% achieved in air. The dense textured ceramics exhibit excellent combined soft and hard properties, showing high d₃₃ of 1025 pC/N and high Q_m of 810. Their performance under high drive is further evaluated via electrical transient response method. The results indicate that even at a high vibration velocity of 1.0 m/s, the dense ceramics maintained a high Q_m of 560, higher than that of the less-dense textured counterparts (Q_m = 140). Moreover, reduced strain hysteresis suggests that the dense microstructure enhances domain wall pinning, thereby mitigating mechanical losses due to inhomogeneous strain under high fields. In summary, this work demonstrates that oxygen-atmosphere sintering effectively improves both mechanical and electrical properties in textured ceramics, showing great promise for high-power piezoelectric applications.