Effects of silver incorporation on the dielectric and ferroelectric properties of PMN-PNN-PZT ceramics

The effects of silver addition on the sintering behavior, the dielectric, a nd ferroelectric properties of PMN-PNN-PZT piezoelectric ceramics for multi layer piezoelectric transformers were investigated. A small amount of silve r promoted the sintering. but with more silver the density of the samples d ecreased. The silver incorporation affected the dielectric and ferroelectri c properties of the samples. The dielectric constant presented an interesti ng change, and the dielectric loss increased slightly. The P-E loops indica ted that the remnant (P-r) and saturated polarization (P-s) increased due t o the silver addition with eventually enhanced ferroelectric properties. Th e degradation of the dielectric strength possibly restricted the polarizing conditions of multilayer piezoelectric devices. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.