Polarization switching process of soft lead zirconate titanate bulk ceramics

The domain switching dynamics was investigated in Nb-doped Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O-3 bulk ceramics through observing systematically the evolution of the hysteresis loops at frequencies ranging from 0.01 to 100 Hz and in a field of 7.5-35 kV/cm. The experimental results indicate that the hysteresis loops are remarkably dependent on the fields and the frequencies. The data are analyzed by the Merz equation. The analysis results reveal that the requirement to satisfy the Merz equation is saturated loops. Based on these results, we divided the polarization switching process into three regions. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.