Polarization characterization of PZT disks and of embedded PZT plates by thermal wave methods

In this work, the thermal wave method was applied to characterize PZT disks and embedded PZT plates with regard to the polarization magnitude and spatial homogeneity. The samples were exposed to periodic heating by means of a laser beam and the pyroelectric response was determined. Thermal relaxation times (single time constants or distributions of time constants) describe the heat losses of the PZT samples to the environment. The resulting pyroelectric current spectrum was fitted to the superposition of thermal relaxation processes. The pyroelectric coefficient gives insight in the polarization distribution. For PZT disks, the polarization distribution in the surface region showed a characteristic decrease towards the electrodes.