Article abstract
Nature Materials 4, 776 - 781 (2005)
Published online: 18 September 2005 | doi:10.1038/nmat1485
Subject Categories: Ceramics | Electronic materials | Computation, modelling and theory
Domain switching in polycrystalline ferroelectric ceramics
J. Y. Li1, R. C. Rogan2,3, E. Üstündag3 & K. Bhattacharya2
Abstract
Ferroelectric ceramics are widely used as sensors and actuators for their electro-mechanical properties, and in electronic applications for their dielectric properties. Domain switching – the phenomenon wherein the ferroelectric material changes from one spontaneously polarized state to another under electrical or mechanical loads – is an important attribute of these materials. However, this is a complex collective process in commercially used polycrystalline ceramics that are agglomerations of a very large number of variously oriented grains. As the domains in one grain attempt to switch, they are constrained by the differently oriented neighbouring grains. Here we use a combined theoretical and experimental approach to establish a relation between crystallographic symmetry and the ability of a ferroelectric polycrystalline ceramic to switch. In particular, we show that equiaxed polycrystals of materials that are either tetragonal or rhombohedral cannot switch; yet polycrystals of materials where these two symmetries co-exist can in fact switch.
- Department of Engineering Mechanics, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0526, USA
- Division of Engineering and Applied Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011-2300, USA
Correspondence to: K. Bhattacharya2 e-mail: bhatta@caltech.edu
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