This letter provides a comparative description of the properties of textured and randomly oriented poly-crystalline lead-free piezoelectric 0.93(Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3)-0.07BaTiO(3) (NBT-BT) ceramics. A high longitudinal piezoelectric constant of (d(33)) similar to 322 pC/N was obtained in (001)(PC) textured NBT-7BT ceramics, which is almost similar to 2x times the d(33) coefficient reported for randomly oriented ceramics of the same composition. In situ neutron diffraction experiments revealed that characteristically different structural responses are induced in textured and randomly oriented NBT-BT ceramics upon application of electric fields (E), which are likely related to the varying coherence lengths of polar nanoregions and internal stresses induced by domain switching. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4709404Test] Office of Basic Sciences, Department of Energy National Science Foundation Division of Scientific User Facilities, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy DE-AC05-00OR22725 UT-Battelle, LLC Oak Ridge National Laboratory
