The anhysteretic polarisation of ferroelectrics

Abstract

Measurement and calculation of anhysteretic curves is a well-established method in the field of magnetic materials and is applied to ferroelectric materials here. The anhysteretic curve is linked to a stable equilibrium state in the domain structure, and ignores dissipative effects related to mechanisms such as domain wall pinning. In this study, an experimental method for characterising the anhysteretic behaviour of ferroelectrics is presented, which is subsequently used to determine the anhysteretic polarisation response of polycrystalline barium titanate and a doped lead zirconate titanate composition at room temperature. Various external parameters, such as electric field, stress, and temperature, can significantly affect ferroelectric behaviour. Ferroelectric hysteresis curves can assess the importance of such effects but cannot distinguish their contribution on the different intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms involved in ferroelectric behaviour. In this work, the influence of compressive stress on the anhysteretic polarisation is measured and discussed. The comparison of the polarization loop to the anhysteretic curve under compressive stress elucidates the effects on the stable equilibrium domain configuration and dynamic effects associated to dissipation.

Temperature-dependent anhysteretic behavior of co-doped PZT

“…The method, referred to as the bias field method, has been detailed in our recent paper. 17 In this method, the material is loaded by an electric field E t ð Þ composed of an alternating decaying component and a bias field component [see Eq. (1)].…”

“…This reversible part is associated with the absolute equilibrium of domain walls, without introducing the role of domain wall pinning. We have recently shown 17 that the reversible part of ferroelectric behavior can be experimentally reconstructed by determining the anhysteretic behavior. In analogy to the anhysteretic curve for ferromagnetic materials, 18 a reversible P-E curve is experimentally determined through the application of a bipolar electric field with a decaying maximum electric field, resulting in a so-called anhysteretic curve or an ideal polarization curve.…”

Anhysteretic strains in ferroelectric ceramics under electromechanical loading

“…Anhysteretic behavior then refers to the theoretical energy equilibrium a material would attain under an applied field if there were no hysteresis. Although it is practically impossible to eliminate hysteresis entirely, the method outlined in this paper and detailed in [20] approximates this behavior in a step-by-step manner. Anhysteretic curves offer another insight into the behavior of ferroelectric materials by showing their reversible contribution only as demonstrated in [20].…”

“…Although it is practically impossible to eliminate hysteresis entirely, the method outlined in this paper and detailed in [20] approximates this behavior in a step-by-step manner. Anhysteretic curves offer another insight into the behavior of ferroelectric materials by showing their reversible contribution only as demonstrated in [20]. The non-reversible contribution can be deduced a posteriori, from the difference between hysteretic and anhysteretic responses.…”

Finite-Element Modeling of the Hysteresis Behavior of Tetragonal and Rhombohedral Polydomain Ferroelectroelastic Structures

“…The modern approaches for the constitutive modeling of both polycrystalline and single-crystal ferroelectroelastic materials can be classified into macroscopic phenomenological models [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ], micromechanical models [ 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 ], and phase–field methods [ 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 ]. Among the phenomenological models, one can single out models based on the theory of phase transitions [ 51 ], models based on analogies with plasticity [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 30 ], models based on the statistical theory of Kolmogorov–Avrami–Ishibashi [ 52 , 53 ], hybrid models [ 54 ], models with internal variables [ 29 ] and semi-macroscopic models accounting for a hysteresis curve [ 55 ]. Micromechanical models are based on analytical (Reuss [ 31 , 32 ], Voigt [ 56 ] or self-consistent [ 31 ] methods) or numerical [ 35 , 38 ] homogenization.…”