High electrostrictive strain in Nd-doped Pb(Ni1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbZrO3-PbTiO3 ceramics

Electrostrictive ceramics are crucial for high-precision actuators due to their low hysteresis, fast response, and low heat dissipation. In this work, Nd 3+ was strategically employed to optimize the electrostrictive properties of x Nd-doped Pb(Ni 1/3 Nb 2/3 )O 3 -PbZrO 3 -PbTiO 3 (PNN-PZ-PT) ceramics. A phase transition from the morphotropic phase boundary to a cubic structure, accompanied by enhanced dielectric relaxor behavior was observed with increasing Nd content, which can be attributed to the disruption of long-range ordered ferroelectric domains caused by aliovalent Nd doping-induced local structural heterogeneities—thereby reducing strain hysteresis and enabling improved electrostrictive response. Notably, outstanding electrostrictive strain of 0.105% and high electrostrictive coefficient M 33 = 10.5 × 10 −16 m 2 /V 2 were obtained under a 10 kV/cm for the 3%Nd-doped PNN-PZ-PT ceramic, superior to other relaxor ferroelectric ceramics. Additionally, this composition exhibits outstanding cycling reliability with only 5% strain degradation over 10 6 electrical cycles, positioning it as a promising candidate for precision micro-actuators applications requiring ultra-stable, high-efficiency electromechanical responses.