Comparison of Characterization Methods for Assessing the Temperature Dependencies of Elastic and Piezoelectric Constants of Piezoelectric Materials

The accurate characterization of the temperature dependencies (TD) of the full tensorial properties of piezoelectric materials (PMs) makes it possible to predict the performance of electromechanical devices fabricated using PMs at different temperatures. The electric resonance (ER) and the resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS) methods-used to characterize the TD of the elastic and piezoelectric constants (EPCs) of PMs-are systematically compared by characterizing Fuji C-213 lead zirconate titanate ceramics. Five samples must be used in ER; however, RUS needs one sample only. Therefore, the preparation of ER samples requires time that is approximately five times higher than that of the RUS sample. Moreover, the temperature-dependent ER measurement requires times that are more than three times than that required by the RUS measurement. RUS can only characterize samples with a high-mechanical quality factor, which should be greater than several hundred. RUS takes more time than ER on data processing. Most material constants characterized using RUS are consistent with those characterized using ER. Overall, RUS can obtain more accurate EPCs than ER, which is proved by comparing the measured electric impedance spectra with those calculated using the ER and RUS results. ER has been extensively used to characterize PMs, and however, RUS has not, due to the lack of commercial RUS software for PMs. It is very difficult to develop. This study provides a reference for the selection of various methods for characterizing the TD of the EPCs of PMs. Moreover, it may facilitate the development of RUS for characterizing PMs.