Convergent-Beam Electron Diffraction Studies of Domains in Rhombohedral Phase of Lead Zirconate Titanate Ceramics

Conference · Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1987

OSTI ID:5411752

Dass, M. L. A. ^[1]; Thomas, G. ^[1]

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1. University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Lead zirconate titanate Pb(Zr_xTi_1-x)O₃ (PZT) ceramics are ferroelectrics formed as solid solutions between PbTiO₃ and PbZrO₃. Among the different phases in the ferroelectric state, the primary ones are the Ti⁺ rich tetragonal (T) phase and the Zr⁺⁴ rich rhombohedral (R) phase and the phase boundary between them (x~0.53). A net polarization for the piezoelectric activity is obtained under an applied field whereby the polarization vectors of individual grains reorient and this process is called poling. The boundary composition is of great technological importance owing to the high piezo electric activity. It is suggested, that the excellent piezo electric property is due to the coexistence of both the T and R phases which favours easy poling. However there has been no systematic study of microstructure and domain structure of the PZT ceramics. The coexistence of both T and R phases at the boundary composition has been reported using the convergent beam electron diffraction method. Further in an attempt to characterize the ferroelectric domains in the different phases, R phase was first studied as such an analysis can be extended to the phase boundary composition to identify the different phases and to study their domain structure.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division (MSE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC03-76SF00098
• OSTI ID: 5411752
• Report Number(s): LBL--23055; CONF-8708368--1; ON: DE91016433
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
360202* -- Ceramics
Cermets
& Refractories-- Structure & Phase Studies
CERAMICS
COHERENT SCATTERING
CRYSTAL LATTICES
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
DIFFRACTION
ELECTRON DIFFRACTION
LEAD COMPOUNDS
MICROSTRUCTURE
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHASE STUDIES
PZT
SCATTERING
TETRAGONAL LATTICES
TITANATES
TITANIUM COMPOUNDS
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
ZIRCONATES
ZIRCONIUM COMPOUNDS