Verification of the flexoelectricity in barium strontium titanate through d33 meter

Flexoelectricity is a newly arising electromechanical property that couples strain gradient to polarization. This physical property widely exists in most of the solid dielectrics but has quite weak response that often overlooked. Recently, barium strontium titanate (BST), a well-known ferroelectrics, has been reported to be a promising flexoelectric material, and thus triggered the associated studies on flexoelectricity to a new height. However, part of the researchers argued the observed flexoelectricity in BST is either by residual piezoelectricity or centric symmetry breaking during the densification process. In this paper, we would verify the flexoelectricity in BST ceramics by many comparison experiments. Our experimental result suggested the observed polarization in BST material is likely to be induced by strain gradient through flexoelectricity.