Effect of temperature on polarization reversal of strontium-doped lead zirconate titanate (PSZT) ceramics

The effect of temperature on polarization reversal of strontium-doped lead zirconate titanate ceramics was studied. The piezoelectric properties viz. dielectric constant and piezoelectric coupling coefficient, were used for polarization reversal characteristic. These properties and apparent coercive field were measured during polarization reversal at different temperatures. Results indicated that at higher temperature apparent coercive field decreased. Polarization reversal and further polarization reversal was quite asymmetric. After polarization reversal, dielectric constant was found to increase at all temperatures while piezoelectric coupling coefficient increased above the temperature of polarization. The trend shown by dielectric constant indicates that at 25°C, 1·5 kV/mm field can be applied safely to this material without much compromising the properties. D.c. field of 3·0 kV/mm and 100°C temperature can be predicted as poling parameters from their effect on \({\bf \textit{k}}_{{\bf p}}\). Apparent coercive field has shown non-linear relationship with temperature. It was of exponential decay type.