Electric-field-induced local structural phenomena in Pb-based ABO3-type relaxor ferroelectrics.

Lead-based ABO3-type relaxors and related systems have numerous applications in modern technical devices because of their remarkably high dielectric permittivity and piezoelectric/electroelastic and electro-optic coefficients. However, lead is not desired from an environmental point of view, and to switch to alternative alkali-, Ba-, or Bi-based relaxor systems, one must understand in great detail the structural mesoscopic order and coupling processes responsible for the outstanding performance and multifunctionality of the exemplar Pb-based compounds. To elucidate the type of ferroic coupling, three relaxor compounds PbSc0.

Phase transition at a nanometer scale detected by acoustic emission within the cubic phase Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3-xPbTiO3 relaxor ferroelectrics.

Pb(Zn(1/3)Nb(2/3))O3-xPbTiO(3) (x=4.5%-12%) relaxor ferroelectric crystals have been studied by means of acoustic emission (AE) in the 400-540 K temperature range. An anomalous AE activity independent of the ground state relaxor/morphotropic/ferroelectric crossover has been revealed at around 500 K, and it is associated with the "waterfall" feature related to the existence of polar nanoregions (PNRs).