Constitutive law for ferroelectric and ferroelastic single crystals: a micromechanical approach

This paper examines the switching process occuring in ferroelectric and ferroelastic single crystals under electro-mechanical loadings. Ferroelectrics undergoing a cubic to tetragonal phase transition are considered. The single crystal energy has three origins: elastic, electric and the incompatibilities of the spontaneous strain and electric displacement fieds between domains. The stress and electric fields fluctuate and present jumps at the domain walls. As a consequence, they induce electro-elastic interaction energy. Thus, it involves dissipation that the present work aims to capture through a micromechanical approach.