Electric field-induced irreversible relaxor to ferroelectric phase transformations in Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3-NaNbO3 ceramics

(1-x)Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3-xNaNbO3 (x=0.02, 0.04, 0.06 and 0.08) ceramics were fabricated by solid state reaction. High-resolution synchrotron x-ray powder diffraction (SXPD) data, coupled with macroscopic electromechanical measurements, reveal the occurrence of an electric field-induced irreversible crystallographic transformation for x=0.02 and 0.04, from a pseudo-cubic non-ergodic relaxor to a rhombohedral or coexisting rhombohedral-tetragonal long range-ordered ferroelectric phase respectively. The highest unipolar electrostrain, corresponding to an effective longitudinal piezoelectric strain coefficient of approximately 340 pm V-1, was obtained for x=0.04; this effect is attributed to enhanced domain switching as a result of the co-existing rhombohedral and tetragonal phases for this composition, which is critical for piezoelectric actuator applications.