Abstract
The property degradation observed in thin Pb(Mg(1/3)Nb(2/3))O(3)-PbTiO(3) (PMN-PT) crystals is believed to relate to large domains and subsequent clamping induced by surface-boundary. In this work, the properties were investigated as function of domain size, using controlled poling. The degraded piezoelectric and dielectric properties of thin PMN-PT were found to increase significantly, by decreasing domain size. Furthermore, the fine domain structure was found to be stable at 3kV/cm after 7.0×10(5) negative-pulse cycles, hence, enabling PMN-PT crystals for high-frequency (>20 MHz) ultrasound-transducers.