Uniaxial stress dependence of ferroelectric properties of xPMN-(1-x)PZT ceramic systems

Effects of uniaxial compressive pre-stress on the ferroelectric properties of ceramics in the PMN-PZT system are investigated. The ceramics with a formula xPb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O-3-(1-x)Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O-3 or xPMN-(1-x)PZT when x=0.0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, 0.9, and 1.0 are prepared by a conventional mixed-oxide method. The ferroelectric properties under the uniaxial compressive pre-stress of the PMN-PZT ceramics are observed at the stress levels up to 13 MPa using a compressometer in conjunction with a modified Sawyer-Tower circuit. It is found that with increasing compressive pre-stress levels the area of the ferroelectric hysteresis (P-E) loops, the saturation polarization (P-sat), the remanent polarization (P-r), and the coercive field (E-c) decrease. These results are interpreted through the non-180 degrees ferroelastic domain-switching processes. Finally, the calculated differential permittivity for all the xPMN-(1-x)PZT ceramics, except for 0.5PMN-0.5PZT, decreases with increasing applied stress.