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Title: Time-of-flight neutron total scattering with applied electric fields: Ex situ and in situ studies of ferroelectric materials

Journal Article · · Review of Scientific Instruments
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5037609 · OSTI ID:1474610

Characterizing the structural response of functional materials (e.g., piezoelectrics and ferroelectrics) to electric fields is key for the creation of structure-property relationships. Here in this paper, we present a new sample environment and data reduction routines which allow the measurement of time-of-flight neutron total scattering during the in situ or ex situ application of high voltage (<10 kV) to a sample. Instead of utilizing the entire detector space of the diffractometer, only selected regions of detector pixels with scattering at the desired angle to the sample electric field are interrogated, which allows the generation of orientation-dependent reciprocal space patterns and real-space pair distribution functions (PDFs). We demonstrate the method using the relaxor ferroelectric Na1/2Bi1/2TiO3 and observe lattice expansion parallel and contraction perpendicular to the electric field for both in situ or ex situ experiments, revealing the irreversible nature of the local scale structural changes to this composition. Additionally, changes in the distributions of nearest neighbor metal-oxygen bond lengths are observed, which have been difficult to observe in previously measured analogous orientation-dependent X-ray PDFs. Lastly, considerations related to sample positioning and background subtraction are discussed, and future research directions are suggested.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725; KC040602
OSTI ID:
1474610
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1472216
Journal Information:
Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 89, Issue 9; ISSN 0034-6748
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 2 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (1)

Time filtering of event based neutron scattering data: A pathway to study the dynamic structural responses of materials journal September 2018

Figures / Tables (10)