Past exam of the materials science course of the University of Cambridge / 2018 / Paper 1 / 2 / b / i / Solution

For a conventional initially random, untextured piezoceramic, orientational averaging suppresses the macroscopic linear response. Electrical poling of ferroelectric domains is the usual way to generate a lasting net response. Under that conventional preparation assumption, a ferroelectric constituent is the expected route.

However, the word polycrystalline alone does not logically require ferroelectricity. A deliberately textured aggregate of nonswitchable piezoelectric grains can have a nonzero effective tensor if their orientations and polar directions do not cancel. Ferroelectricity means electrically switchable spontaneous polarization, whereas piezoelectricity means linear stress–charge coupling. Thus the unconditional statement that every polycrystalline piezoelectric must be ferroelectric is too strong.