Suppression of the antiferroelectric phase during polarization cycling of an induced ferroelectric phase

The ceramic Pb0.99Nb0.02[(Zr0.57Sn0.43)0.92Ti0.08]0.98O3 can exist in either an antiferroelectric or a ferroelectric phase at room temperature, depending on the thermal and electrical history. The antiferroelectric phase can be partially recovered from the induced ferroelectric phase when the applied field reverses polarity. Therefore, polarization cycling of the ferroelectric phase in the ceramic under bipolar fields at room temperature is accompanied with repeated phase transitions. In this letter, the stability of the recovered antiferroelectric phase upon electrical cycling of the ceramic is investigated. Ex-situ X-ray diffraction reveals that bipolar cycling suppresses the antiferroelectric phase; this is indirectly supported by piezoelectric coefficient d 33 measurements. It is speculated that the accumulated charged point defects during polarization cycling stabilize the polar ferroelectric phase. The findings presented are important to the fundamental studies of electric fatigue and field-induced phase transitions in ferroelectrics. Disciplines Materials Science and Engineering Comments The following article appeared in Applied Physics Letters 107, 072908 (2015); and may be found at, doi: 10.1063/1.4929322. Rights Copyright 2015 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. This article is available at Iowa State University Digital Repository: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/mse_pubs/214 Suppression of the antiferroelectric phase during polarization cycling of an induced ferroelectric phase Xiaoming Liu and Xiaoli Tan Citation: Applied Physics Letters 107, 072908 (2015); doi: 10.1063/1.4929322 View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4929322 View Table of