Impact of pulse poling on static and dynamic ferroelastic-domain contributions in tetragonal Pb(Ti, Zr)O3 films determined by in-situ x–ray diffraction analysis

The effects of bipolar pulse poling on the ferroelastic domain structure and their contribution to the electrical and piezoelectric properties of Pb(Ti0.7Zr0.3)O3 films are investigated. Micro x-ray diffraction measurements clearly show that the volume fraction of the c-domain increases irreversibly as the poling field is increased, leading to changes in the remanent polarization, dielectric constant, and piezoelectric coefficient. Theoretical estimations well explain the changes of remanent polarization and dielectric constant, but the increase in piezoelectric coefficient is much larger than the theoretical estimation. In-situ x-ray diffraction analysis under an electric field reveals that this disagreement is due to the unexpected activation of the ferroelastic domain wall motion. Our results provide new insight into the poling effect on the electric and piezoelectric properties of ferroelectric films.