Soft modes in two- and eight-direction order-disorder ferroelectrics

Accurate quantitative prediction of the finite-temperature properties of a phase transitioning system has been a long-standing challenge in condensed matter physics and materials science. Here we regard a collective vector mode as essential quasiparticle excitation of the displacive ferroelectricity. Starting from the quantum statistic description of this excitation, we develop a self-consistent, microscopically based phase-transition theory of displacive ferroelectricity. Th...

One account of two-dimensional (2D) structural transformations in 2D ferroelectrics predicts an evolution from a structure with Pnm2$_1$ symmetry into a structure with square P4/nmm symmetry and is consistent with experimental evidence, while another argues for a transformation into a structure with rectangular Pnmm symmetry. An analysis of the assumptions made in these models is provided here, and six fundamental results concerning these transformations are contributed as fo...

We analyze scattering of the transverse optic modes by spherically symmetric Polarized Nano Regions (PNR) in the paraelectric phase of relaxor ferroelectrics. Calculations have done in the frame of mean-field model early supposed by E.Iolin & J.Toulouse but depolarization field effects, DF, were taken into account. Elementary excitations of the system are found to be of two types - Vortex (V) and Quasi Polar (QP). DF decreases temperature of the local QP phase transition. The...

We propose a simple and solvable mean-field model of the scattering of transverse optic modes by Polarized Nano Regions (PNR) in the paraelectric phase of relaxor ferroelectrics. The PNR is assumed to be a ferroelectric sphere embedded in the host isotropic medium. The Lagrangian parameters are taken to be the same inside and outside the PNR, with exception of the soft-mode gap temperature dependence. The interaction of the Transverse (TO) with the longitudinal (LO) optic mod...

A change in the effective permittivity of a ferroelectric film in the paraelectric phase under the action of a strong high-frequency field (nonequilibrium soft mode heating) is considered. It is shown that this effect must be most clearly pronounced far from the resonance (\omega_0 << \omega_sm), rather than for the external field frequency \omega_0 close to the soft mode frequency \omega_sm. The effective permittivity as a function of the high-frequency field amplitude is ca...

We report neutron inelastic scattering on single crystal 0.68Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3O3)-0.32PbTiO3 (PMN-0.32PT), a relaxor ferroelectric material that lies within the compositional range of the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB). Data were obtained between 100 K and 600 K under zero and non-zero electric field applied along the cubic [001] direction. The lowest energy, zone-center, transverse optic phonon is strongly damped and softens slowly at high temperature; however the square of t...

In this special issue of Physica A in memory of Professor Dietrich Stauffer, I first recall my impression on him while being his postdoc for a year at HLRZ. In the following scientific part, I discuss the theory of soft phonons with quartic nonlinear interactions. This is applied to the cubic crystal BaTiO$_3$ for phase transition from para- to ferroelectric phase.

The equations for phase transitions temperatures, order parameters and critical concentrations of components have been derived for mixed ferroelectrics. The electric dipoles randomly distributed over the system were considered as a random field sources. We derive a random field distribution function for different orientations of the electric dipoles with nonlinear and spatial correlation effects included.

We review results obtained from recent neutron scattering studies of the lead-oxide class of perovskite relaxors PMN and PZN. A ferroelectric soft mode has been identified in PMN at 1100 K that becomes overdamped near 620 K. This is the same temperature at which polar nanoregions (PNR) begin to form, denoted by Td, and suggests that a direct connection exists between the soft mode and the PNR. The appearance of diffuse scattering intensity at Td reported by Naberezhnov et al....

A comprehensive theory for electronic transport in itinerant ferromagnets is developed. We first show that the Q-field theory used previously to describe a disordered Fermi liquid also has a saddle-point solution that describes a ferromagnet in a disordered Stoner approximation. We calculate transport coefficients and thermodynamic susceptibilities by expanding about the saddle point to Gaussian order. At this level, the theory generalizes previous RPA-type theories by includ...