The effect of dislocations on phase transition in PbZrO₃-based antiferroelectrics

Dislocations in perovskite oxides have an important influence on their macroscopic performances. In this work, we report abundant dislocations in PbZrO3-based antiferroelectric (AFE) ceramics, which manifest themselves mainly as dislocation arrays with Burgers vectors along the <110> direction. We demonstrate that these dislocation arrays were emitted from the grain boundaries and exhibit a pure screw character with glide systems of <110>{110}. The in-situ transmission electron microscopy investigations indicate that dislocations are beneficial for stabilizing the AFE phase in the heating process and serve as nucleation sites for the AFE phase during cooling. Meanwhile, the stress field of dislocation arrays also plays a critical role in the growth of AFE domains, which can be applied for regulating domain size and orientation. These findings provide the basis for dislocation engineering in AFE ceramics.