Effect of Compositional Variations on Field-Induced Phase Transition of (Pb,La)(Zr,Sn,Ti)O3Antiferroelectric Ceramics

(Pb,La)(Zr,Sn,Ti)O 3 ceramics near AFE-FE phase boundary were studied as a function of composition, electric field and temperature. Below the critical temperature T FE − AFE of FE to AFE phase transition, the electric field-induced FE state can maintain metastable state when electric field was removed. As temperature increased over T FE − AFE , the metastable FE recovered to AFE. As Ti content increased, the structure of unpoled PZST ceramics changed from tetragonal AFE phase to rhombohedral FE phase, the temperature T FE − AFE increased, while the switching field E AFE − FE and E FE − AFE decreased. The forward switching field E AFE − FE and hysteresis Δ E were observed to be dependent on T FE − AFE and Tc, respectively.