2010 Volume 118 Issue 1380 Pages 706-710
We report the structure and electric properties of La3Ta0.5Ga5.5−xAlxO14 (LTGAx, x = 0.0 (LTG), 0.3 and 0.5) single crystals, with a Ca3Ga2Ge4O14-type structure, suitable for high temperature piezoelectric application. A single-crystal X-ray structure analysis reveals that Al atoms are distributed in all cation sites except for the decahedral site occupied by La, which favors instead the octahedral site. The piezoelectric moduli d11 kept a constant, whereas |d14| increased 14% with the increasing Al content, x, up to 0.5. The LTGA0.5 crystals showed a low temperature dependence (2% deviation from room temperature to 400°C) of d11 and a higher electric resistivity ρ than those of the LTG crystals. The Al substitution is effective for improving the electrical properties of the LTG.