Overcoming the performance ceiling of textured piezoelectric ceramics

Textured piezoelectric ceramics could deliver the ultrahigh piezoelectricity of single crystals while retaining the mechanical robustness and cost-effectiveness of conventional ceramics, but after decades of effort, their piezoelectricity has not approached that of single crystals. We exploited compositional flexibility of textured ceramics, a critical advantage over single-crystal counterparts, using a machine-learning approach. Our samarium (Sm)-doped Pb(In_1/2Nb_1/2)O₃-Pb(Sc_1/2Nb_1/2)O₃-PbTiO₃ textured ceramics exhibited an ultrahigh piezoelectric coefficient (d₃₃) of 1720 picocoulombs per newton and a Curie temperature of 250°C. These values are comparable to, or even surpass, those of state-of-the-art single crystals. In situ x-ray diffraction and Rayleigh analysis indicate that their exceptional piezoelectricity is predominantly intrinsic rather than driven by domain switching. Leveraging these textured ceramics, we fabricated a piezoelectric accelerator that exhibits not only higher sensitivity but also substantially better reliability than its single-crystal counterparts.