Electro-caloric effect in a BCZT single crystal†
Abstract
The electrocaloric effect of the [001]-oriented (Ba,Ca)(Zr,Ti)O3 (BCZT) single crystal was investigated in a wide temperature range from −100 °C to the Curie temperature (122 °C). An electrocaloric strength of 0.105 K cm kV−1 (at 10 kV cm−1 and 124 °C) and 0.006 K cm kV−1 (at 10 kV cm−1 and 30 °C) was obtained. Furthermore, the coexistence of the negative and positive electrocaloric effects was observed for the first time in the BCZT single crystal. The negative ECE was attributed to the non-collinearity of the polarization and electric field applied on the BCZT single crystal based on the observed domain structure evolution and Landau calculation.