The role of random electric fields in relaxors

Abstract

PbZr_{1-x}Ti_xO_3 (PZT) and Pb(Mg_{1/3}Nb_{2/3})_{1-x}Ti_xO_3 (PMN-$x$PT) are complex lead-oxide perovskites that display exceptional piezoelectric properties for pseudorhombohedral compositions near a tetragonal phase boundary. In PZT these compositions are ferroelectrics, but in PMN-xPT they are relaxors because the dielectric permittivity is frequency dependent and exhibits non-Arrhenius behavior. We show that the nanoscale structure unique to PMN-xPT and other lead-oxide perovskite relaxors is absent in PZT and correlates with a greater than 100% enhancement of the longitudinal piezoelectric coefficient in PMN-xPT relative to that in PZT. By comparing dielectric, structural, lattice dynamical, and piezoelectric measurements on PZT and PMN-xPT, two nearly identical compounds that represent weak and strong random electric field limits, we show that quenched (static) random fields establish the relaxor phase and identify the order parameter.

arXiv comment(main article - 7 pages, 4 figures; supplementary information - 3 pages, 3 figures)

References in corpus (21)

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Cited by in corpus (12)

• Observation of Spontaneous Helielectric Nematic Fluids: Electric Analogy to Helimagnets
• Insight into dielectric response of ferroelectric relaxors by statistical modeling
• Coexistence of local structural heterogeneities and long-range ferroelectricity in Pb-free (1-x)Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3-x(Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3 ceramics
• Random Electric Field Instabilities of Relaxor Ferroelectrics
• A new inelastic neutron spectrometer HODACA
• Fluctuating defects in the incipient relaxor K${}_{1-x}$Li${}_x$TaO${}_3$ (x=0.02)
• Phase transition of chemically doped uniaxial relaxor ferroelectric
• Simulating the radiofrequency dielectric response of relaxor ferroelectrics: Combination of Coarse-Grained Hamiltonians and Kinetic Monte Carlo
• Relaxors, spin-, Stoner- and cluster-glasses
• Coincident onset of charge order and pseudogap in a homogeneous high-temperature superconductor
• Phonon coupling to dynamic short-range polar order in a relaxor ferroelectric near the morphotropic phase boundary
• Resonance Damping of the THz-frequency Transverse Acoustic Phonon in the Relaxor Ferroelectric KTa1-xNbxO3