Electro-shape-memory effect in hybrid doped BaTiO3 ceramics

In the present paper, we investigated the hysteresis loops and electro-shape-memory effect of the acceptor (Mn3+) and donor (La3+) co-modified BaTiO3 unpoled ceramics. The concentration of acceptor Mn3+ was fixed at 1.0 mol% while that of donor La3+ varied from 0.5 mol% to 2.0 mol%. We found that the double hysteresis loops (which indicate the reversible domain switching) exist in all hybrid doped samples after aging, no matter whether acceptor is dominating or donor is dominating. More importantly, the electrostrain, based on recoverable domain switching, shows a larger strain value of 0.184%, which is superior to that in poled hard PZT and close to that of the soft PZT. At the same time, the electrostrain curves shows smaller hysteresis and smaller coercive field with increasing donor concentration. Such results may provide a new way to enhance the electrostrain effect in non-toxic (lead-free) materials.