Raman Spectroscopy Studies of Nanocrystalline Lead Zirconate Titanate as Functions of Particle Size and Pressure

The Raman studies of lead zirconate titanate with varied grain size from 27.5 nm to 983 nm were performed under pressure up to 32 GPa to elucidate the scenario of phase transition pressures of lead zirconate titanate, which lies in the morphotropic phase boundary. The coexistence of ferroelectric rhombohedral and tetragonal phases at ambient condition changed to the coexistence of tetragonal and cubic phases at intermediate pressure and finally, transited to paraelectric cubic phase at elevated pressure. The pressure evolution of Raman spectra results indicated that the phase transition pressure increased with the reduction of the particle size.