title: Electric-field-induced AFE-FE transitions and associated strain/preferred orientation in antiferroelectric PLZST.
abstract: Electric-field-induced, antiferroelectric-ferroelectric (AFE-FE) phase transitions are common for AFE materials. To date, the strain and preferred orientation evolution as well as the role of the intermediate FE state during the successive AFE-FE-AFE phase transitions has not been clear. To this end, we have herein studied a typical AFE Pb0.97La0.02(Zr0.56Sn0.33Ti0.11)O3 (PLZST) material using in-situ neutron diffraction. It is striking that the AFE-FE phase transition is not fully reversible: in the electric-field-induced FE state, the induced strain exhibits an elliptical distribution, which in turn leads to significant preferred orientation in the final AFE state after withdrawal of the applied electric-field. The ω-dependent neutron diffraction patterns show clear evidence of the induced strain distribution and associated preferred orientation arising from the AFE-FE phase transition. The current work also provides an explanation for several temperature and electric-field dependent dielectric anomalies as well as unrecovered strain change which appear in AFE materials after exposure to sufficiently high electric fields.
authors.affiliation: Research School of Chemistry, The Australian National University, ACT 2601, Australia.
authors.forename: Teng
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Bragg Institute, The Australia Neutron Science and Technology Organisation, Lucas Height, Australia.
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Studer
authors.affiliation: Research School of Chemistry, The Australian National University, ACT 2601, Australia.
authors.forename: Lasse
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Noren
authors.affiliation: Research School of Chemistry, The Australian National University, ACT 2601, Australia.
authors.forename: Wanbiao
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Bragg Institute, The Australia Neutron Science and Technology Organisation, Lucas Height, Australia.
authors.forename: Dehong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Research School of Chemistry, The Australian National University, ACT 2601, Australia.
authors.forename: Bethany
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: McBride
authors.affiliation: Electronic Materials Research Laboratory, Xian Jiaotong University, Xian 710049, Shaanxi, China.
authors.forename: Yujun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Research School of Chemistry, The Australian National University, ACT 2601, Australia.
authors.forename: Ray L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Withers
authors.affiliation: Centre for Advanced Microscopy, The Australian National University, ACT 2601, Australia.
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Electronic Materials Research Laboratory, Xian Jiaotong University, Xian 710049, Shaanxi, China.
authors.forename: Zhuo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Research School of Chemistry, The Australian National University, ACT 2601, Australia.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu