Phase Transitions in Relaxor Ferroelectricity

Abstract

Relaxors have a wide variety of industrial applications because of their high permittivity and piezoelectricity around room temperature. Although the microscopic mechanism of the relaxor behavior has not been fully elucidated yet, there are some fundamental developments in the experimental studies in the last decade, which are briefly reviewed in this paper with particular reference to pioneering works of Professor Ginzburg on phase transitions in ferroelectricity.

Keywords:

• Relaxor
• ferroelectricity
• polar nanoregions
• morphotropic phase boundary
• soft mode condensation

Acknowledgment

It is my great honor to write a paper for the Ginzburg Festschrift of Ferroelectrics. I am grateful to Prof. Ishibashi for giving me this chance. Many of the experimental works reviewed here were led by the late Gen Shirane, whom I am profoundly indebted to for his guidance to this fascinating research area of relaxors.