Raman spectroscopy for the investigation of indentation-induced domain texturing in lead zirconate titanate piezoceramics

The study of the close relationship between crack propagation and domain switching is of extreme importance in the reliability of PbZr1−xTixO3 (PZT) devices. We performed domain imaging in the neighbourhood of indentation cracks on poled and non-poled PZT bulk specimens using polarized micro-Raman spectroscopy. Non-destructive Raman measurements helped to correlate the indentation-induced domain texture with the crack growth resistance on both samples. Hence, polarized micro-Raman spectroscopy offers the potential to locally investigate regions of interest in complex piezoelectric devices.