Abstract
We have determined the fatigue induced damage zone underneath the electrodes in bulk lead zirconate titanate ceramics by polishing off the fatigued electrodes. The results show that removal of material to different depths from the electrode yields different degrees of recovery of device properties depending on the cycle number. The results suggest that fatigue behavior is related to the diffusion of silver electrode, microcracks and trapped charge defects in the damage zones.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50672042) and the Ministry of Sciences and Technology of China through 973-Project under Grant No. 2009CB623306.