Phase Transitions in Lead-free Piezoelectric Ceramics Monitored by the Resonance Method

Abstract

Ferroelectrics, like batio3 (bt) or binatio3 (bnt), were studied in the 1950s and are now revisited, due to the need for lead-free piezoceramics, according to worldwide directives for environmental protection. Poling some of these materials has shown a different physical mechanism than ferroelectric domain orientation, involving field-induced structural phase transitions from pseudo-cubic phases to ferro-piezoelectrically active ones. They also depolarize below the curie temperature due to a structural phase transition. Both poling and thermal depoling can be monitored by the measurement of the electromechanical resonances. Depoling of (1-x) bnt-xbt ceramics with x=0.04 (bnbt4) is here considered as a case study.