Pulse discharge properties of PLZST antiferroelectric ceramics compared with ferroelectric and linear dielectrics

The pulse discharge properties of lead lanthanum zirconate stannate titanate (PLZST) antiferroelectric (AFE) ceramics, ferroelectric (FE) dielectrics, and linear dielectrics were compared in this paper. It is found that as the voltage increases, those three types of dielectrics display three different voltage-dependent regularities: the peak current (I-max) of linear dielectrics increases linearly with increasing voltage; the I-max of FE dielectrics rises up with a gradually declined increase rate; the I-max of PLZST AFE ceramics presents a three-stage growth and during the third stage, the regularity is similar with that of FE dielectrics. Furthermore, three advantages of PLZST AFE ceramics for pulse discharge can be determined: a large increase rate of I-max due the field-forced AFE-FE phase transition, a great enhanced power density and a relatively short discharge period time. These results would pave the way for understanding and utilizing AFE ceramics in pulse power application. (C) 2017 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).