Potential distribution in ferroelectric ceramic during pulsed exoelectron emission

The potential and polarization distributions in a planar emitting layer of PLZT-9/65/35 ferroelectric ceramic with a set of conductive strip electrodes on the emitting side and a continuous electrode on the opposite side are studied by numerical methods. The state arising immediately after polarization switching at the leading edge of an applied voltage pulse (i.e., before the polarization charges are screened by free charges) is considered. When the pulsed field strength far exceeds the double coercive field, regions with alternating polarization are found to form in the surface layer between the strips. The normal component of the polarization at its maxima is close to saturation. The electric field on both sides of the surface varies as the polarization vector and reaches 200 kV/cm. At surface microirregularities, the electric field strength is much higher. This means that field emission is responsible for electron escape from the ferroelectric ceramic during pulsed polarization switching.