Ferroelectric Hysteresis Measurement & Analysis

M. Stewart & M. G. Cain (National Physical Laboratory), D. A. Hall (University of Manchester)

May 1999

Abstract: It has become increasingly important to characterise the performance of piezoelectric materials under conditions relevant to their application. Piezoelectric materials are being operated at ever increasing stresses, either for high power acoustic generation or high load/stress actuation, for example. Thus, measurements of properties such as, permittivity (capacitance), dielectric loss, and piezoelectric displacement at high driving voltages are required, which can be used either in device design or materials processing to enable the production of an enhanced, more competitive product. Techniques used to measure these properties have been developed during the DTI funded CAM7 programme and this report aims to enable a user to set up one of these facilities, namely a polarisation hysteresis loop measurement system. The report describes the technique, some example hardware implementations, and the software algorithms used to perform the measurements. A version of the software is included which, although does not allow control of experimental equipment, does include all the analysis features and will allow analysis of data captured independently.

Available for download: Ferroelectric measurement good practice guide