Electromechanical Properties of BaTiO3 Ceramics Prepared by Spark Plasma Sintering and Other Methods

BaTiO3 (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-anti resonant 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. (C) 2009 The Japan Society of Applied Physics