Experimental measurement of stress at a four-domain junction in lead zirconate titanate

A junction between two lamellar bands of ferroelectric domains in a lead zirconate titanate ceramic is analyzed using Kikuchi diffraction patterns in the transmission electron microscope. Indexing of the diffraction patterns allowed the determination of the three-dimensional relative orientation of the four different domains at the junction and thus the characterization of the domain boundaries. The local c/a ratio could also be determined from the misorientations at the domain boundaries. Analysis of the data showed that large stresses were concentrated at the junction, and that this is inevitable at such band junctions. Such stress concentrations could act as nuclei for cracking of the ceramic under additional loading in service, perhaps particularly as a consequence of extended electromechanical cycling. Moreover, the stresses would increase with increasing c/a, making the issues all the more serious for Ti-rich compositions having larger c/a ratios. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.