The behavior of 95/5 PZT subjected to bipolar electrical loading and hydrostatic pressure is studied experimentally. When 95/5 PZT is subjected to high enough hydrostatic pressure it undergoes a ferroelectric to antiferroelectric (FEAFE) phase transformation. Specimens were subjected to two pressure cycles from 0 to 550 MPa at a rate of 50 MPa/min under short circuit conditions. It was found that under the first pressure cycle the specimens undergo a FEAFE phase transformation at 330 MPa indicated by an abrupt compression of 2500 microstrain. Under the second pressure cycle, the transformation no longer occurs at a single pressure level, but is smoothed throughout loading. In another set of experiments, bipolar electric fields were applied up to 3 MV/m at discrete pressure levels. At low pressures, electric displacement-electric field plots exhibited open loop behavior characteristic of soft ferroelectrics. As the pressure was increased past the FE-AFE phase transformation threshold, the open loops closed to nearly linear dielectric. When the driving pressure was decreased the open loop behavior returned at a notably lower pressure level. The transformation pressure is therefore path dependent and is evidence of a pressure hysteresis.

Date Published: 3 April 2013
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 8689, Behavior and Mechanics of Multifunctional Materials and Composites 2013, 868907 (3 April 2013); doi: 10.1117/12.2013753

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8689:
Behavior and Mechanics of Multifunctional Materials and Composites 2013
Nakhiah C. Goulbourne; Hani E. Naguib, Editor(s)