Emergence of high piezoelectricity from competing local polar order-disorder in relaxor ferroelectrics
- University of Science and Technology Beijing (China)
- Beijing Institute of Technology (China)
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon (Hong Kong)
- Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- University of Silesia, Katowice (Poland)
- Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA (United States)
Relaxor ferroelectrics are known for outstanding piezoelectric properties, finding a broad range of applications in advanced electromechanical devices. Decoding the origins of the enhanced properties, however, have long been complicated by the heterogeneous local structures. Here, we employ the advanced big-box refinement method by fitting neutron-, X-ray-based total scattering, and X-ray absorption spectrum simultaneously, to extract local atomic polar displacements and construct 3D polar configurations in the classical relaxor ferroelectric Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–PbTiO3. Our results demonstrate that prevailing order-disorder character accompanied by the continuous rotation of local polar displacements commands the composition-driven global structure evolution. The omnidirectional local polar disordering appears as an indication of macroscopic relaxor characteristics. Combined with phase-field simulations, it demonstrates that the competing local polar order-disorder between different states with balanced local polar length and direction randomness leads to a flattening free-energy profile over a wide polar length, thus giving rise to high piezoelectricity. Our work clarifies that the critical structural feature required for high piezoelectricity is the competition states of local polar rather than relaxor.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); Central Universities, China; China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725; AC02-06CH11357; 22235002; 22075014; 06500162; BX20200044; 2020M680344
- OSTI ID:
- 1965227
- Journal Information:
- Nature Communications, Vol. 14, Issue 1; ISSN 2041-1723
- Publisher:
- Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Ultrahigh strain and piezoelectric behavior in relaxor based ferroelectric single crystals
The Contributions of Polar Nanoregions to the Dielectric and Piezoelectric Responses in Domain-Engineered Relaxor-PbTiO3 Crystals