  Antiferroelectrics have been recently sparking interest due to their
potential use in energy storage and electrocaloric cooling. Their main
distinctive feature is antiferroelectric switching, i.e. the possibility to
induce a phase transition to a polar phase by an electric field. Here we
investigate the switching behavior of the model antiferroelectric perovskite
PbZrO3 using thin films processed by chemical solution deposition in different
geometries and orientations. Both out-of-plane and in-plane switching
configurations are investigated. The critical field is observed to be highly
dependent on the direction of the electric field with respect to the film
texture. We show that this behaviour is qualitatively consistent with a phase
transition to a rhombohedral polar phase. We finally estimate the importance of
crystallite orientation and film texturation in the variations observed in the
literature.
