Electrically induced microcracking in modified PZT ceramics

Electrically induced microcracking was investigated in a modified tetragonal PZT ceramics as a function of average grain-size and tetragonality (c/a). Microcracks were observed after poling in coarse-grained ceramics, though coarse grained samples had smaller tetragonality. That is, the dependence of micro-cracking, which was caused by the elastic strain energy resulting from dipole alignment during poling, on grain size was larger than that on tetragonality. These microcracks deteriorated dielectric and piezoelectric properties.