Domain properties of high-performance barium titanate ceramics

It has been known that barium titanate (BaTiO3) causes abnormal grain growth during conventional sintering utilizing resistance heating. The grain growth of barium titanate induced using by a hydrothermal synthesis method is controlled using microwave sintering having effects on internal overheating and rapid sintering and relationships between domain size and the piezoelectric constant d(33) are studied. The domain size of a sample having a grain size of 2.5 mu m was 76 nm and the d(33) was 350 pC/N; however, the domain size of a 10 mu m sample was 156 nm and the d(33) was 300 pC/N. Furthermore, with the sample having a higher d(33), the continuity of the domain structure across grain boundaries was confirmed.