ABSTRACT
The paper is concerned with the P—E (polarisation—electric field) switching behaviour of hard PZT (lead zirconate titanate) ceramics. The remanent polarisation Pr , saturation polarisation Ps, and internal bias field Ei were determined at a field amplitude of 3.5 kV mm-1 during ageing and field-driven deaging measurement procedures. It is shown that the rates of increase of Pr and Pr during field-driven deageing, which represents an AC poling process, are dependent both on temperature and on the prior ageing treatment of the unpoled specimens.
