Fabrication and performance of a single-crystal lead magnesium niobate-lead titanate cylindrical hydrophone.
The development of a piezoelectric hydrophone based on lead magnesium niobate-lead titanate [PbMg1/3Nb2/3O3-PbTiO3 (PMN-PT)] single-crystal piezoelectric as the hydrophone substrate is reported. Although PMN-PT can possess much higher piezoelectric sensitivity than traditional lead zirconate titanate (PZT) piezoelectrics, it is highly anisotropic and therefore there is a large gain in sensitivity only when the crystal structure is oriented in a specific direction. Because of this, simply replacing the PZT substrate with a PMN-PT cylinder is not an optimal solution because the crystal orientation does not uniformly align with the circumferential axis of the hydrophone. Therefore, a composite hydrophone that maintains the optimal crystal axis around the hydrophone circumference has been developed. An 11.3 mm diameter composite hydrophone cylinder was fabricated from a single <110> cut PMN-PT rectangular plate. Solid end caps were applied to the cylinder and the sensitivity was directly compared with a solid PZT-5A cylindrical hydrophone of equal dimensions in a hydrophone test tank. The charge sensitivity showed a 9.1 dB improvement over the PZT hydrophone and the voltage sensitivity showed a 3.5 dB improvement. This was in good agreement with the expected theoretical improvements of 10.1 and 4.5 dB, respectively.
Dalhousie University, 5981 University Avenue, P.O. Box 15000, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 4R2, Canada. j.brown@dal.ca
Jeremy A
JA
Brown
Kevin
K
Dunphy
Jeff R
JR
Leadbetter
Robert B A
RB
Adamson
Olivier
O
Beslin
D003198:Computer Simulation; D003460:Crystallization; D004867:Equipment Design; D007854:Lead / Q000737:chemistry*; D008422:Materials Testing; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009038:Motion; D009556:Niobium / Q000737:chemistry*; D009716:Numerical Analysis, Computer-Assisted; D010087:Oxides / Q000737:chemistry*; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013016:Sound; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013997:Time Factors; D014025:Titanium / Q000737:chemistry*; D014160:Transducers, Pressure; D014465:Ultrasonics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014867:Water
D010087:Oxides; C404734:lead magnesium niobate; C481719:lead titanate; D009556:Niobium; D014867:Water; D007854:Lead; D014025:Titanium