Piezoelectric and electrostrictive effects

If all the coefficients of equation (2) are known, one can accurately predict the longitudinal strain under a varying electric field for a given piezoelectric or electrostrictive material, and even for a material exhibiting both piezoelectric and electrostrictive effects, such as irreversible electrostrictive materials. For ideal reversible electrostrictive materials, which possess no remnant polarization at zero electric field, the odd power term of the electric field in equation (2) vanishes. However, we will consider the relaxor PLZT ceramics studied in this chapter as irreversible electrostrictives, to account for any ferroelectric behaviour under dc bias fields, and we will therefore include both terms of the electric field in equation (2). 

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