Determination of domain orientation in lead zirconate titanate ceramics by Raman spectroscopy

Raman spectroscopy was employed to investigate the domain orientations of poled and unpoled tetragonal lead zirconate titanate ceramics. Using backscattering geometry, the ceramics were rotated 360 degrees relative to the polarization direction of the incident beam. The ratio of the crossed to parallel polarization intensities in the poled sample demonstrates periodicity with respect to the rotation angle, while that of the unpoled sample does not. The angular periodicity of the intensity ratio is related to the domain orientations through the Raman tensor. Raman spectroscopy is thereby demonstrated as a quantitative technique that can measure domain switching distributions in ferroelastic ceramics. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.