Electromechanical Properties of BaTiO3Ceramics Prepared by Spark Plasma Sintering and Other Methods

BaTiO 3 (BT) ceramics with various grain sizes are prepared by spark plasma sintering (SPS), two-step sintering, and conventional sintering. The field-induced displacement and piezoelectric constant measured by a resonant–antiresonant frequency method are evaluated. The BT ceramics prepared by SPS are characterized by high permittivity, high loss tangent, linear-field-induced strain, and low Q m , and exhibit a relatively higher field-induced strain and a higher d 31 value than the fine-grained BT ceramics fabricated by other methods. These characteristics of the SPS-BT ceramics are probably due to the high internal stress of the samples.