Ultrahigh strain and superior temperature stability in lead-free ceramics via synergetic texture technique and phase structure engineering.

Lead-free piezoelectric ceramics with large strain response and good temperature stability are highly required for actuator applications. However, the search for lead-free ceramics with both enhanced strain and reduced thermal-dependent behavior is a great challenge. In this work, by employing templated grain growth technique and elaborately modulate the phase structure, large unipolar strain of 0.30 %, low strain hysteresis H s ∼ 12 %, along with small strain variation 11.8 % between 20 and 100 °C are achieved in (001) C -oriented (Ba 0.95 Ca 0.05)(Sn 0.04 Ti 0.96)O 3 ceramics, being the optimal level of BaTiO 3 family. It is revealed the ceramics exhibit a coexistence of orthorhombic and tetragonal phases. The inherent piezoelectric anisotropy of orthorhombic phase, the reversible a → c domain switch, along with the refined non-180° domain structures contribute to the remarkable electrostrain characteristic. This study proposed a promising strategy to develop high performance piezoelectric materials for actuator applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]