High-temperature poling of ferroelectrics

The poling behavior of a lead-zirconate-titanate piezoelectric ceramic is investigated by measurements of the ferroelectric hysteresis, the longitudinal piezoelectric coefficient, and field-cooling poling experiments. At high temperatures, the decrease in the coercive field facilitates poling at lower electric fields, resulting in higher values of the longitudinal piezoelectric coefficient. However, there exists a threshold field of about 150 V/mm, below which fully poled samples cannot be obtained even when field cooling from temperatures above the transition. Further, a temperature regime below the Curie temperature is observed, where a polarization under field can be measured, but a remanent polarization is not stable. The results are discussed with respect to the phase transition behavior. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.