title: Nontrivial behavior of T(c) at the small electric field in BaTiO3 crystals, detected by means of acoustic emission.
abstract: Cubic-tetragonal phase transitions of [100]-oriented BaTiO3 crystals have been studied by means of an acoustic emission (AE) method, under an external electric field. The Curie temperature (Tc) reveals a nontrivial behavior at the small field, namely, it initially decreases with enhancement of the field, attains a minimum at the threshold field Eth = 0.256 kV cm(-1), accompanied by the AE count rate N[dot] ≈ 9 s(-1), and then starts increasing with a rate of 1.5 K m kV(-1) as the field is enhanced. Such nontrivial behavior of Tc is explained as due to the presence of polar nanoregions, recently revealed in BaTiO3 crystals (Ko et al 2011 Phys. Rev. B 84 094123).
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Physics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel. evgeniy.dulkin@mail.huji.ac.il
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dul'kin
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Roth