Internal bias and aging of materials properties in ferroelectric ceramics

By simultaneous measurements of the internal bias and the dielectric constant in acceptor doped barium-titanate ceramics a distinct relation between the aging of the material properties and the increase of the internal bias was found. It was assumed that the aging of the materials properties was caused to a significant extent by domain wall clamping due to the internal bias field. Additional measurements of the temperature dependence of the dielectric constant at differently aged acceptor-doped lead zirconate-titanate (PZT) samples indicated that aging is partly limited to a temperature interval above and below the aging temperature.<
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