American Institute of Physics, Journal of Applied Physics, 6(116), p. 066811, 2014
DOI: 10.1063/1.4891398
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We report on temperature dependence of local electromechanical properties of lead-free (K,Na)NbO3-based ceramics that macroscopically manifests a large temperature-insensitive strain. Piezoresponse force microscopy reveals the particular role of the orthorhombic-tetragonal phase transition, where a reconstruction of the domain structure occurs and local piezoelectric response shows a peak value. A good quantitative agreement between temperature dependences of the local and previously reported macroscopic small-signal piezoelectric coefficients is observed. An influence of the polymorphic phase transition on polarization switching kinetics was revealed.