Thermal conductivity of lead zirconate titanate PbZr_1-x Ti _x O₃

We present the thermal conductivity (kappa) of perovskite PbZr1-xTixO3 (PZT) for 0 <= x <= 1 and 300 K <= T <= 873 K, the composition and temperature ranges covering the classic phase diagram of this important piezoelectric system. The glasslike d kappa/dT > 0 behavior is observed for the ferroelectric rhombohedral phases and much of the paraelectric cubic phase, implying the presence of strong phonon damping in these regions of PZT. For all the temperatures studied in this work, the kappa becomes lowest at x = 0.5.