Ferroelectric and piezoelectric behaviour of rhombohedral ferroelectric single crystal subjected to anisotropic poling

Anisotropic hysteresis and piezoelectric properties of a rhombohedral ferroelectric single crystal were studied in this paper using the phase field simulation method. Electric loading was applied along [0 0 1] and [1 1 1] directions separately. It was found that poling in the [0 0 1] direction resulted in a reduced hysteresis loop and an enhanced longitudinal piezoelectric coefficient. By changing the lead-zirconate-titanate (PZT) composition, a PZT with composition near the morphotropic phase boundary showed an extraordinarily large increment in the longitudinal piezoelectric coefficient.