The nonlinearity and subswitching hysteresis in hard and soft PZT

Aging in the relaxor and ferroelectric state of Fe-doped (1-x)(Bi1/2Na1/2)TiO3-xBaTiO3 piezoelectric ceramics

“…The pinching of the polarization hysteresis, which commonly occurs in PZT:Fe at a doping level of 1% 21,51 even without special aging treatment, is not observed here, independent of the thermal history (Figure 2). To explain this finding, we recapitulate that pinching in conventional ferroelectrics such as PZT or BT is rationalized with the gradual stabilization of a domain structure with randomly oriented P s vectors.…”

“…Quenching can inhibit the formation or orientation of clamping defect complexes during cooling. 51,54 Thus, the domain structure of quenched BNT-15BT:1Fe lacks stabilization by defects and a larger portion of the sample remains electrically switchable, resulting in a larger switchable polarization. The simultaneous increase of E C can be rationalized with the coexistence of fully clamped and un-clamped domains in furnace-cooled BNT-15BT:1Fe.…”

Strain engineering of electrical conductivity in epitaxial thin Ba0.7Sr0.3TiO3 film heterostructures

“…It is agreed that at room temperature (RT) perovskites (in contrary to non-oxide covalent semiconductors like Si) contain large concentrations of defects [18], oxygen vacancies being most probable of them [19,20]. Migration of these defects and reorientation of the extended defect complexes [21][22][23] play a key role in resistance degradation and fatigue of ferroelectric ceramic capacitors and devices. Similar effects take place at the micro-and nanoscale in the thin films and are responsible for the long-term degradation of properties [24,25].…”

Domain wall contributions to the properties of piezoelectric thin films

“…In those cases, the experimental hysteresis is larger than that predicted from the nonlinearity in the permittivity or the piezoelectric coefficient, and one can effectively separate linear and nonlinear contributions to the hysteresis [17,25]. In contrast to cases where Rayleigh behavior dominates the total response, in well aged acceptor-doped (or hard) PZT ceramics the weak field nonlinearity is dominated by a nonhysteretic process; therefore, the nonlinearity and the small hysteresis cannot be linked through Rayleigh relations or their modifications [15,24]. To summarize, analysis of nonlinearity alone is not sufficient to verify whether a Rayleigh-like process is present in the material; the link between nonlinearity and hysteresis must be established.…”