Quantification of domain reorientation in polycrystalline distorted perovskites

Abstract The reorientation of crystallographic domains under the applied electric field plays an important role in determining the functional behavior of distorted perovskites. In polycrystalline ceramics, the mutual hindrance among the randomly oriented grains, which is not same for all the compositions, restricts the fraction of achievable domain switching. Here, an analytical framework has been developed to quantify the domain switching behavior in polycrystalline ceramics as a function of the crystallographic nature, and elastic, piezoelectric, ferroelectric and dielectric properties of the parent single crystals. To quantify the constantly varying stress and strain fields within, with successive domain reorientation processes, each randomly oriented crystallite has been considered to be an Eshelby inhomogeneity embedded in a polycrystalline matrix. Findings of the framework are validated by the experimental switching behavior of several well-known distorted perovskite ceramics (BaTiO3, PZT-T and PMNPT-R/T). In future, the framework can be utilized to assist several experimental strategies to achieve high performance in polycrystalline ceramics through enhanced domain switching.