The contribution of 180° domain wall motion to dielectric properties quantified from in situ X-ray diffraction

Abstract The contribution of 180° domain wall motion to polarization and dielectric properties of ferroelectric materials has yet to be determined experimentally. In this paper, an approach for estimating the extent of (180°) domain reversal during application of electric fields is presented. We demonstrate this method by determining the contribution of domain reversal to polarization in soft lead zirconate titanate during application of strong electric fields. At the maximum applied field, domain reversal was determined to account for >80% of the measured macroscopic polarization. We also apply the method to quantify the contribution of domain reversal to the weak-field dielectric permittivity of BaTiO 3 . The results of this analysis determined that domain reversal accounts for up to ∼70% of the macroscopic dielectric permittivity in BaTiO 3 . These results demonstrate the predominance of domain reversal to high and low-field dielectric response in ferroelectric polycrystalline materials.