New Technique for Measuring Ferroelectric and Antiferroelectric Hysteresis Loops

A new technique, the double-wave method (DWM), is developed to refine ferroelectric D – E hysteresis loops. The method discriminates non-hysteresis components from ferroelectric D – E hysteresis loops by applying identical unipolar waves twice. It extracts only the hysteresis component automatically without any assumptions. The DWM can compensate intricate non-hysteresis components in D – E loops which traditional methods cannot. It can separate an antiferroelectric component from ferroelectric and other components by applying a bias electric field. As a typical example of a ferroelectric, D – E loops of NaNO 2 by the DWM are examined. To demonstrate the advantages of the DWM, D – E loops of multiferroic ErMn 2 O 5 are presented. Antiferroelectric-like components in D – E loops are separated and fine ferroelectric loops of ErMn 2 O 5 are observed by the DWM.