Abstract

The paper describes a method to study ferroelastic domain switching during fracture of PZT ceramics, which is based on imaging of diffracted X-ray radiation using a position sensitive detector. It is shown that the high spatial resolution of the detector allows one to measure accurately the spatial distribution of domain switching near the fracture. The capabilities of this method are demonstrated in two experiments performed for ceramics with a composition PZT 60/40 + 2%La. In the first experiment, the distribution of the amount of domain switching is measured on the fracture surface, and the regions with stable and unstable crack growth can be separated. In the second experiment, the half-width of the process zone is determined. Its value, w = 60 - 80 mum, is in a good agreement with the estimate from fracture mechanics.