PZT

Piezocomposite ceramic can be tailored to our needs in contrast to conventional piezoceramic. The first parameter we can modify is the ceramic volume fraction. Fig. 2 indicates that the thickness coupling factor of the 1-3 composite is higher over a wide range of ceramic volume fraction between 15% and 95% than the coupling factor for PZT of about 0.52. Between 25% and 70% of volume fraction it is nearly constant at a high level of approximately 0.65. 

By variation of ceramic volume fraction and selection of the best fitting PZT material we can as well adjust the dielectric constant of the piezocomposite within a wide range. Therefore, we can choose the best piezocomposite material for each probe type to get optimum pulse form and amplitude. 

The first example refers to the detection of a 1mm side drilled hole at a depth of 45 mm in a polyethylene plastic material. Due to the high sound absorption in plastics, a low operating frequency is chosen. A probe having a 1 MHz element of 24 mm diameter was selected for this example. The echo pattern of a conventional probe with a PZT transducer is pre-... 

Fig. 8 Pulse shape (top) and spectrum (bottom) for a 2 MHz immersion probe with PZT (left) and composite transducer (right)...

The use of air-bome ultrasound for the excitation and reception of surface or bulk waves introduces a number of problems. The acoustic impedance mismatch which exists at the transducer/air and the air/sample interfaces is the dominant factor to be overcome in this system. Typical values for these three media are about 35 MRayls for a piezo-ceramic (PZT) element and 45 MRayls for steel, compared with just 0.0004 MRayls for air. The transmission coefficient T for energy from a medium 1 into a medium 2 is given by... 

A new class of materials called smart tagged composites has been developed for stmctural health monitoring appHcations. These composites consist of PZT-5A particles embedded into the matrix resin (unsaturated polyester) of the composite (16). 

Eig. 9. A typical sonochemical apparatus with dkect immersion ultrasonic horn. Ultrasound can be easily introduced into a chemical reaction with good control of temperature and ambient atmosphere. The usual pie2oelectric ceramic is PZT, a lead 2kconate titanate ceramic. Similar designs for sealed... 

PT, PZT, PLZT nonvolatile memory, ir, pyroelectric detectors, electro—optic waveguide, and spatial light modulators sol—gel, sputtering... 

Calcination. Calcination involves a low (<1000° C) temperature soHd-state chemical reaction of the raw materials to form the desired final composition and stmcture such as perovskite for BaTiO and PZT. It can be carried out by placing the mixed powders in cmcibles in a batch or continuous kiln. A rotary kiln also can be used for this purpose to process continuously. A sufficiendy uniform temperature has to be provided for the mixed oxides, because the thermal conductivity of powdered materials is always low. 

The development of active ceramic-polymer composites was undertaken for underwater hydrophones having hydrostatic piezoelectric coefficients larger than those of the commonly used lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics (60—70). It has been demonstrated that certain composite hydrophone materials are two to three orders of magnitude more sensitive than PZT ceramics while satisfying such other requirements as pressure dependency of sensitivity. The idea of composite ferroelectrics has been extended to other appHcations such as ultrasonic transducers for acoustic imaging, thermistors having both negative and positive temperature coefficients of resistance, and active sound absorbers. 

Composite Devices. Composites made of active-phase PZT and polymer-matrix phase are used for the hydrophone and medical imaging devices (see Composite materials, polymer-matrix Imaging technology). A usehil figure of merit for hydrophone materials is the product of hydrostatic strain coefficient dj and hydrostatic voltage coefficient gj where gj is related to the dj coefficient by (74)... 

Another important class of titanates that can be produced by hydrothermal synthesis processes are those in the lead zirconate—lead titanate (PZT) family. These piezoelectric materials are widely used in manufacture of ultrasonic transducers, sensors, and minia ture actuators. The electrical properties of these materials are derived from the formation of a homogeneous soHd solution of the oxide end members. The process consists of preparing a coprecipitated titanium—zirconium hydroxide gel. The gel reacts with lead oxide in water to form crystalline PZT particles having an average size of about 1 ]lni (Eig. 3b). A process has been developed at BatteUe (Columbus, Ohio) to the pilot-scale level (5-kg/h). 

Nickel is being used ia magnetostrictive transducers ia some ultrasonic devices, eg, solderiag irons and ultrasonic cleaners, because of its moderate magnetostriction and availabiUty. This market, however, is dominated by piezoelectric transducers of lead zirconate—titanate (PZT) (see Ultrasonics). 

There is also growing iaterest ia thin-film dielectric capacitors. For example, through the use of processiag techniques such as sol—gel solution deposition, thin (--- 0.25 fim) ceramic layers having dielectric constants ranging from 500 to 2000 ia the PZT, Pb(Zr,Ti)03, and PMN—PT, Pb(Mn2 3Nb2 3)03-PbTi03, compositional families respectively, have been prepared (3). 

Solution deposition processing has been used to prepare thin films (qv) of PbTiOg, PZT, PLT, PLZT, BaTiO, LiNbOg, PMN, PMN-PT,... 

PZN-PT, and YBa2Cug02 g. For the preparation of PZT thin films, the most frequently used precursors have been lead acetate and 2irconium and titanium alkoxides, especially the propoxides. Short-chain alcohols, such as methanol and propanol, have been used most often as solvents, although there have been several successful investigations of the preparation of PZT films from the methoxyethanol solvent system. The use of acetic acid as a solvent and chemical modifier has also been reported. Whereas PZT thin films with exceUent ferroelectric properties have been prepared by sol-gel deposition, there has been relatively Httle effort directed toward understanding solution chemistry effects on thin-film properties. 

Ferroelectric Thin-Film Devices. Since 1989, the study of ferroelectric thin films has been an area of increasing growth. The compositions studied most extensively are in the PZT/PLZT family, although BaTiO, KNbO, and relaxor ferroelectric materials, such as PMN and PZN, have also been investigated. Solution deposition is the most frequentiy utilized fabrication process, because of the lower initial capital investment cost, ease of film fabrication, and the excellent dielectric and ferroelectric properties that result. 

Numerous uses for PZT/PLZT thin films are under investigation. The device that, as of this writing, is closest to commercialization is a nonvolatile memory. This device, which utilizes a ferroelectric thin-film capacitor integrated onto siUcon circuitry, provides memory retention when the power is off because of the polarization retention of the ferroelectric capacitor. One and zero memory states arise from the two polarization states, — and +F, of the ferroelectric. Because PZT is radiation-hard, the devices are also of interest for military and space appHcations. 

Certain perovskites with Pb on the A site are particularly important and show pronounced piezoelectric characteristics (PbTiO, PZT, PLZT). Different responses are found in BaTiO and PZT to the addition of donor dopants such as La ". In PZT, lead monoxide [1317-36-8] PbO, lost by volatilization during sintering, can be replaced in the crystal by La202, where the excess positive charge of the La " is balanced by lead vacancies, leading to... 

These lead-based materials (PZT, PLZT, PMN) form a class of ceramics with either important dielectric, relaxor, pie2oelectric, or electrooptic properties, and are thus used for appHcations ia actuator and sensor devices. Resistive properties of these materials ia film form mirror the conduction processes ia the bulk material. Common problems associated with their use are low dielectric breakdown, iacreased aging, and electrode iajection, decreasiag the resistivity and degrading the properties. 

In lead zh conate, PbZrOs, the larger lead ions are displaced alternately from the cube corner sites to produce an antifeiToelectric. This can readily be converted to a feiToelectric by dre substitution of Ti" + ions for some of the Zr + ions, the maximum value of permittivity occumirg at about the 50 50 mixture of PbZrOs and PbTiOs. The resulting PZT ceramics are used in a number of capacitance and electro-optic applicahons. The major problem in dre preparation of these solid soluhons is the volatility of PbO. This is overcome by... 

Usually, in AFM the position of the tip is fixed and the sample is raster-scanned. After manual course approach with fine-thread screws, motion of the sample is performed with a piezo translator made of piezo ceramics like e. g. lead zirconate tita-nate (PZT), which can be either a piezo tripod or a single tube scanner. Single tube scanners are more difficult to calibrate, but they can be built more rigid and are thus less sensitive towards vibrational perturbations. 

Other strongly ferroelectric crystals have been discovered and today, PZT -Pb(Ti, Zr)03 is the most widely exploited of all piezoelectric (ferroelectric) ceramics. 

The contribution to the stress from electromechanical coupling is readily estimated from the constitutive relation [Eq. (4.2)]. Under conditions of uniaxial strain and field, and for an open circuit, we find that the elastic stiffness is increased by the multiplying factor (1 -i- K ) where the square of the electromechanical coupling factor for uniaxial strain, is a measure of the stiffening effect of the electric field. Values of for various materials are for x-cut quartz, 0.0008, for z-cut lithium niobate, 0.055 for y-cut lithium niobate, 0.074 for barium titanate ceramic, 0.5 and for PZT-5H ceramic, 0.75. These examples show that electromechanical coupling effects can be expected to vary from barely detectable to quite substantial. 

It is of interest to compare the observations with different physical mechanisms as shown in Fig. 5.19. Typically, the polarization values for polymers are weak and do not overlap those of piezoelectrics. What is observed is that there is over a 6 order-of-magnitude range in polarizations from the weakest signals (Teflon) to the strongest (PZT 95-5). The polarization signals from ionic crystals are stronger than those in polymers and overlap those of piezoelectrics, albeit at larger strains. 

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