title: Unraveling the nature of electric field- and stress- induced structural transformations in soft PZT by a new powder poling technique.
abstract: A 'powder-poling' technique was developed to study electric field induced structural transformations in ferroelectrics exhibiting a morphotropic phase boundary (MPB). The technique was employed on soft PZT exhibiting a large longitudinal piezoelectric response (d(33) ∼ 650 pC N(-1)). It was found that electric poling brings about a considerable degree of irreversible tetragonal to monoclinic transformation. The same transformation was achieved after subjecting the specimen to mechanical stress, which suggests an equivalence of stress and electric field with regard to the structural mechanism in MPB compositions. The electric field induced structural transformation was also found to be accompanied by a decrease in the spatial coherence of polarization.
authors: Department of Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India.
authors: Ajay Kumar
authors: AK
authors: Kalyani
authors: Lalitha K
authors: LK
authors: V
authors: Ajit R
authors: AR
authors: James
authors: Andy
authors: A
authors: Fitch
authors: Rajeev
authors: R
authors: Ranjan