Advance nano ceramic PZT sensors: Fabrication and Characterisation Techniques: The Sol-Gel fabrication approach

Lead Zirconium Titanate (PZT)Electro- Piezo Ceramic system, discovered by Jaffe et. al. finds vast and wide range applications in the field of Electrical and Electronics Engineering as Smart structures,reconfigurable sensors,memory devices,piezoelectric electromechanical actuators and capacitors,due to it's well known piezoelectric properties.Since it's discovery about four decades back, it has always remained a point of attraction for various researchers and scientists because of its highly modifiable piezoelectric and dielectric properties; obtainable by replacing either whole or a part of the host atom in ABO3 type perovskite structure of PZT, by foreign ions. Analogous to semi-conductors; these foreign ions are also called Dopants, classified as isovalent, acceptors, and donors. The PZT system is still under extensive research for further improvement in its piezoelectric properties. It has been reported by many authors that significant changes can be achieved by addition of various dopants in PZT with a view to their dielectric and piezoelectric properties. In this book a detailed study of various properties of "sol-gel" derived PZT for reconfigurable sensors are presented.