Piezoelectric nonlinearity and frequency dispersion of the direct piezoelectric response of BiFeO3 ceramics

We report on the frequency and stress dependence of the direct piezoelectric d(33) coefficient in BiFeO3 ceramics. The measurements reveal considerable piezoelectric nonlinearity, i.e., dependence of d(33) on the amplitude of the dynamic stress. The nonlinear response suggests a large irreversible contribution of non-180 degrees domain walls to the piezoelectric response of the ferrite, which, at present measurement conditions, reached a maximum of 38% of the total measured d(33). In agreement with this interpretation, both types of non-180 degrees domain walls, characteristic for the rhombohedral BiFeO3, i.e., 71 degrees and 109 degrees, were identified in the poled ceramics using transmission electron microscopy. In support to the link between nonlinearity and non-180 degrees domain-wall contribution, we found a correlation between nonlinearity and processes leading to depinning of domain walls from defects, such as quenching from above the Curie temperature and high-temperature sintering. In addition, the nonlinear piezoelectric response of BiFeO3 showed a frequency dependence that is qualitatively different from that measured in other nonlinear ferroelectric ceramics, such as soft (donor-doped) Pb(Zr,Ti)O-3 (PZT), i.e., in the case of the BiFeO3 large nonlinearities were observed only at low field frequencies (<0.1Hz); possible origins of this dispersion are discussed. Finally, we show that, once released from pinning centers, the domain walls can contribute extensively to the electromechanical response of BiFeO3; in fact, the extrinsic domain-wall contribution is relatively as large as in Pb-based ferroelectric ceramics with morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) composition, such as PZT. This finding might be important in the search of new lead-free MPB compositions based on BiFeO3 as it suggests that such compositions might also exhibit large extrinsic domain-wall contribution to the piezoelectric response. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4754315]