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Lamellar-like nanostructure in a relaxor ferroelectrics Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3

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Abstract

The nanostructure of relaxor ferroelectric materials has been a central focus for investigating the microscopic origin of their intriguing physical properties. While it is believed that relaxor ferroelectricity is governed by polar nanostructures, such as polar nanoregions or nanodomains, recent studies have indicated the importance of additional mechanisms, such as the competition of ferroelectric/anti-ferroelectric order and the formation of hierarchical nanodomains. This calls for further investigation on the nanostructure. Here, we used conventional, in situ, and atomic-scale electron microscopy to study prototypic relaxor ferroelectrics, Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3 (PMN) and Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–PbTiO3 (PMN-PT). We found that a lamellar-like nanostructure was present in pure PMN, which had been overlooked in past studies and did not have a strong correlation with the polar nanostructure and the chemically ordered region. Unlike the lamellar-like nanodomains in PMN-PT, the lamellar-like nanostructure in PMN was not coupled with Pb-ion displacement and was not reoriented by the presence of an electric field. The results suggested that the formation of a lamellar-like structure occurs prior to the formation of larger-scale polar order in relaxor ferroelectrics.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP18H01710, JP18K18952, and JP20H00314 and by the JSPS-DST bilateral joint research project Grant Number JPJSBP120197724. This work was also supported by JST CREST Grant Number JPMJCR18R2, Japan. A portion of the experiments were conducted at the Ultramicroscopy Center, Kyushu University. We thank Arun Paraecattil, PhD, from Edanz Group (https://en-author-services.edanzgroup.com/ac) for editing a draft of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan

    Yukio Sato, Syota Fujinaka, Syo Yamaguchi, Ryo Teranishi & Kenji Kaneko

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta, Midori, Yokohama, 226-8503, Japan

    Takao Shimizu

  3. Department of Physics, Nagoya University, Furocho, Chikusa, Nagoya, 464-8602, Japan

    Hiroki Taniguchi

  4. Nanostructure Research Laboratory, Japan Fine Ceramics Center, 2-4-1 Mutsuno, Atsuta, Nagoya, 456-8587, Japan

    Hiroki Moriwake

  5. Center for Materials Research by Information Integration (CMI2), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-2-1 Sengen, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0047, Japan

    Hiroki Moriwake

Authors
  1. Yukio Sato
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  2. Syota Fujinaka
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  3. Syo Yamaguchi
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  4. Ryo Teranishi
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Contributions

Conceptualization and methodology of this work was constructed by Y. S and H. M. Y. S., S. F., and S. Y. conducted TEM and STEM observations. T. S and H. T. grew PMN single crystals. Y. S. wrote the original draft and S. F, S. Y, T. S., H, T., M. M., R. T., and K. K. reviewed and edited the draft. Supervision, project administration, and funding acquisition were conducted by Y. S.

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Correspondence to Yukio Sato.

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Sato, Y., Fujinaka, S., Yamaguchi, S. et al. Lamellar-like nanostructure in a relaxor ferroelectrics Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3. J Mater Sci 56, 1231–1241 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-020-05417-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-020-05417-5