Bridgman growth of Pb[(Zn1/3Nb2/3)0.91Ti0.09]O3 single crystals using different seeds

Bridgman growth of relaxor ferroelectric single crystals Pb[(Zn1/3Nb2/3)0.91Ti0.09]O3 (PZNT91/9) had been investigated. 50 mol% PbO was used as flux and some crystals with perovskite structure, such as SrTiO3 (STO), Pb[(Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.67Ti0.33]O3 (PMNT67/33) and PZNT91/9, were used as seeds. It failed to grow PZNT crystal on STO seed while large-size PZNT were obtained using PMNT67/33 or PZNT91/9 seeds. The seed–crystal interface was investigated by means of electron probe microanalyser (EPMA). High quality PZNT91/9 crystal with dimension Ø28 mm × 30 mm had been grown using PZNT seeds and slices up to 20 mm × 15 mm × 1 mm were obtained. The dielectric properties of the grown PZNT crystal were characterized by the dielectric spectroscopy.