Electric Field Effects on the Diffuse Scattering in PZN-8%PT

Abstract

We report measurements of the neutron diffuse scattering from a single crystal of the relaxor ferroelectric Pb(Zn_1/3Nb_2/3)O_3 doped with 8% PbTiO_3 (PZN-8%PT) for temperatures 100 K < T < 530 K and electric fields 0 kV/cm < E < 10 kV/cm. The diffuse scattering is strongly suppressed transverse to the (003) Bragg peak at 400 K for E = 2 kV/cm applied along the [001] direction. However, no change in the diffuse scattering is observed transverse to (300), even for field strengths up to 10 kV/cm. Thus the application of an external electric field in the tetragonal phase does not produce a macroscopically polarized state. This unusual behavior can be understood within the context of the Hirota et al. phase-shifted polar nanoregion (PNR) model of the relaxor diffuse scattering, since an electric field E oriented parallel to [001] would remove the shift of the nanoregions along [001] while preserving those along the orthogonal [100] direction.

5 pages, 6 figures Revised Fig. 6

References in corpus (3)

• A Neutron Elastic Diffuse Scattering Study of PMN
• Neutron Diffraction Study of Field Cooling Effects on Relaxor Ferroelectrics Pb[(Zn_{1/3} Nb_{2/3})_{0.92} Ti_{0.08}] O_{3}
• Ground State of Relaxor Ferroelectric $Pb(Z{n}_{1/3}N{b}_{2/3})O_3$

Cited by in corpus (13)

• Phase instability induced by polar nanoregions in a relaxor ferroelectric system
• The role of random electric fields in relaxors
• A reassessment of the Burns temperature and its relationship to the diffuse scattering, lattice dynamics, and thermal expansion in the relaxor PMN
• Interplay between static and dynamic polar correlations in relaxor Pb(Mg_{1/3}Nb_{2/3})O_{3}
• Coexistence and competition of local- and long-range polar orders in a ferroelectric relaxor
• Neutron and X-ray diffraction study of cubic [111] field cooled Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3
• The Persistence and Memory of Polar Nano-Regions in a Ferroelectric Relaxor Under an Electric Field
• Competing orders in PZN-xPT and PMN-xPT relaxor ferroelectrics
• Two-step phase changes in cubic relaxor ferroelectrics
• A two-component model of the neutron diffuse scattering in the relaxor ferroelectric PZN-4.5%PT
• Response of polar nanoregions in 68%Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-32%PbTiO3 to a [001] electric field
• Freezing of the local dynamics in the relaxor ferroelectric PZN-4.5PT
• Phonon coupling to dynamic short-range polar order in a relaxor ferroelectric near the morphotropic phase boundary