Phenomenological theory of electric-field-induced phase transition behavior of antiferroelectric ceramic (Pb,Ba,La)(Zr,Sn,Ti)O3 under uniaxial compressive pre-stress

The phase transition behavior of antiferroelectric ceramic (Pb,Ba,La)(Zr,Sn,Ti)O3 under uniaxial compressive pre-stress is observed at stress up to 100 MPa using a homebuilt experimental setup in conjunction with a modified Sawyer-Tower circuit. The results reveal that the saturation polarization (Psat) decrease with increasing compressive pre-stress, while the phase transition fields increase as the compressive pre-stress increases. Meanwhile the applied pre-stress virtually does not affect the transition field hysteresis (ΔE). The longitudinal strain (S) increases with increasing compressive pre-stress and reaches to maximum at 20 MPa, and then gradually decreases. A phenomenological thermodynamic theory has been developed to model the first-order phase transition behavior of the material.