Domain engineering for enhanced high-power dynamic piezoelectric characteristics in Mn-doped PIMNT single crystals

Domain engineering is a powerful strategy for optimizing the piezoelectric performance of relaxor-based single crystals, yet its role in governing high-power dynamic stability remains poorly understood. To address this gap, we successfully fabricated Mn-doped PIMNT single crystals with well-defined “2 R” and “4 R” domain configurations and systematically investigated their high-power dynamic piezoelectric performance using the electrically excited strong-vibration transient response method. Results demonstrate that domain engineering effectively modulates the dynamic electromechanical performance metrics, with a uniform “2 R” domain configuration being crucial for achieving exceptional stability under high vibration velocities. The superior stability of the “2 R” architecture is evidenced by its significantly reduced degradation of the mechanical quality factor (Q_m) compared to “4 R” samples. Notably, while the PT content primarily governs the magnitude of the piezoelectric coefficient (d₃₁), it plays only a secondary role in determining high-power stability. This is supported by the observation that samples sharing the identical domain structure exhibit similar degradation trends in their normalized mechanical quality factor (ΔQ_m/Q_m(0)). These findings establish a clear microstructure-property relationship linking domain engineering, composition, and nonlinear piezoelectric response. Nevertheless, all samples exhibit substantially increased power dissipation density (P_d) at extreme velocities. This demonstrates that while a high Q_m with low loss is a prerequisite, effective thermal management remains the ultimate constraint in high-power applications, even with optimal domain engineering.