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Abstract
Ferroelectric phase transition of 18O-exchanged SrTiO3 (STO18) was investigated by Raman scattering as a function of the isotope exchange rate x. The result reasonably indicates the existence of the ideal soft mode-type quantum ferroelectric phase transition in STO18. In the vicinity of the critical concentration (xc = 33%), the coexistence of the paraelectric and ferroelectric regions was newly found, in drastic contrast to the homogeneous ferroelectric phase transition in the strongly exchanged STO18, whose x is sufficiently larger than xc. Near xc, the softening of the soft mode shows unusual rounding as a result of the coexistence. The present result indicates novel phase transition nature in the quantum ferroelectric phase transition of STO18, where dynamic heterogeneity plays an essential role.
Acknowledgment
This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (Start Up) from JSPS No. 18840017, by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S) from JSPS No. 17104004, and by a Grant-in-Aid for Creative Scientific Research from JSPS No. 14GS0301.