Materials Science Forum, Vol.475-479, 1169-1172, 2005
Stabilization effect in BaTiO3 single crystal during aging below Tc
High purity BaTiO3 single crystal was aged below its Curie temperature for different times. The reverse transformation (from tetragonal to cubic) temperature was measured precisely by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). It was observed that the reverse transformation temperature increased with increasing aging time, indicating ferroelectric phase became stable with aging. This behavior is the same as found in ferroelastic alloys. The origin of the stabilization effect in ferroelectric single crystals was discussed with respect to the distribution of point defects.