Fatigue of field-induced strain in antiferroelectric Pb0.97La0.02(Zr0.77Sn0.14Ti0.09)O3 ceramics

The fatigue of mechanical strain induced by electric fields was investigated for antiferroelectric Pb0.97La0.02(Zr-0.77 Sn0.14Ti0.09)O-3 ceramics. The material shows a high resistance to fatigue owing to bipolar electric cycling up to 10(8) cycles. The strain hysteresis is loop is still fairly symmetric, whereas the maximum field-induced strain decreases by only 30% of its initial value. The fatigued samples show a damaged microstructure with dendritic macrocracks and microcrack clouds. The fatigue is attributed to a combination of electrochemical and mechanical mechanisms.