Electrical response of Pb(Zr0.95Ti0.05)O3 under shock compressions

PZT ((Pb(Zr0.95Ti0.05)O3)) 95/5 ferroelectric ceramics have been used in shock-driven pulsed-power supplies for many years. Their electrical responses under the high electric field strengths generated by shock compression are important in various applications. Shock experiments were conducted to understand the complicated electromechanical behavior by measuring the depoling current. An equivalent circuit was built to analyze the dielectric parameters of PZT 95/5 ceramics under shock compression. The results indicated that the internal resistivity and breakdown strength decrease with increasing shock stress and abnormal behavior, whereby the internal resistivity increases with increasing electric field strength, which is also observed at 4.3GPa. Cracks induced by mechanical failure under high stresses were found to be related to the leakage current of the samples and to play an important role in determining the electrical response of PZT 95/5 under shock compression. © 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.