Fabrication and characterization of textured PMN-PZ-PT composition and its 1-3 piezocomposite applications

Textured PMN-PZT ceramics doped with 1.5 mole% Mn were prepared and shaped in the form of convex shells. Texture was obtained using a combination of tape casting and templated grain growth (TGG) methods. PMN-PZT ceramic shells with randomly oriented equiaxial grains were also prepared as a reference. These textured ceramic shells were combined with similarly shaped metal caps to obtain the 'Sea-Shell' transducer, a new Class V flextensional design. A comparison of the electroacoustic performance of random and textured Mn-doped PMN-PZT Sea-Shell transducers revealed a 2.5 dB increase in peak value of the Transmitting Voltage Response while the -3dB bandwidth increased from 12 to 17 kHz compared to the random equiaxed counterpart. It was demonstrated that fabricating the Sea-Shell transducer from textured ceramics improved the electroacoustic performance.