It was reported that a tetragonal phase can be stabilized with maintaining good piezoelectric properties when Na_0.5K_0.5NbO₃ (KNN) is modified with 0.06 mol SrTiO₃. However, such a high amount of SrTiO₃ leads not only to poor sinterability but low Curie temperature (TC). To maintain high TC with good piezoelectric properties in KNN-based lead-free piezoelectric ceramics, this study investigates the effect of Li-doping on the dielectric and piezoelectric properties of 0.96Na_0.5K_0.5NbO₃-0.04SrTiO₃ (KNN-4ST) ceramics. As a result, the orthorhombic-tetragonal phase transition was observed at 2 mol% Li₂CO₃ modified KNN-4ST ceramics, whose TC, d33 and kp values are 328℃, 165pC/N and 0.33, respectively.

BaTiO₃ powder was synthesized by a solid-state reaction using BaCO₃ and TiO₂. Different calcination temperatures (800℃, 850℃, 900℃, and 950℃) were set to investigate their effects on the properties of BaTiO₃ powder. The synthesized BaTiO₃ phase was confirmed to be a single phase by XRD, and the tetragonality (c/a) and crystallite size were calculated. Thereafter, each calcinated BaTiO₃ was sintered at five different sintering temperatures (1,100℃, 1,150℃, 1,200℃, 1,250℃, and 1,300℃), and the tetragonality, density, porosity, dielectric constant, and grain size were measured. As the calcination temperature increased, the tetragonality and crystallite size also increased, to 1.008 and 66 nm, respectively, at 950℃. Moreover, most pellets showed increased density, dielectric constant, and tetragonality as the sintering temperature increased up to 1,250℃; the same parameters slightly decreased at 1,300℃. It is noteworthy that the tetragonality of BaTiO₃ at 1,250℃ exhibits a very high c/a value of 1.0084. In addition, the grain size and dielectric constant measured near the Curie temperature increased as the sintering temperature increased.

A highly strained nanostructure comprising crystallographically aligned HgTe nanoinclusions and a surrounding PbTe matrix has been synthesized using a precipitation process of supersaturated HgTe-PbTe alloys. From the early precipitation stage, HgTe nanoinclusions take disk shape, which is transformed from initial HgTe nuclei, although there is no lattice constant difference of the two end components at standard state. As a primary reason for the morphological transformation of the initial spherical HgTe nuclei to HgTe nanodisks, the induced lattice mismatch is suggested. On the condition that the HgTe nanodisks maintain perfect coherent nature with PbTe matrix, the stress-free lattice constant of constrained HgTe nanodisks has been calculated based on the defined concept of the strain-induced tetragonality, the linear elasticity and the actual measurement in HRTEM images.