Coercive and switching fields in ferroelectric ceramics

The coercive field in ferroelectric ceramics is, in general, significantly smaller than the switching field, i.e., the field necessary to reverse the direction of polarization within an individual grain of the material. It is shown that a factor contributing to this difference is that the grain gives rise to an internal field which assists the applied field in the bringing about the switching in other grains. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.