Structural Evolution in Morphotropic Lead Zirconate Titanate

PbZr
_1-x
TixO
₃
(PZT) is one of the most popular and widely used ferroelectric materials. The study of its structure has a significant importance in understanding the mechanisms leading to extraordinary large dielectric and piezoelectric coefficients in this and similar materials. In this paper we describe the results of the study of the structural evolution of piezoelectric PZT single-crystal with x ~ 0.48 using high-resolution X-ray diffraction technique in a wide temperature range from room temperature to 380 °C. We traced the structure evolution analyzing 2-d intensity maps around several Bragg reflections and observed patterns showing ferroelastic domain creation and development.