Hysteresis of Field-Induced Ferroelectric Transition in Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3 Relaxor Ferroelectrics

The electric field induced ferroelectric transition was studied by polarization and quasi-isothermal measurements in relaxor Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3 (PMN) single crystal oriented in [110] direction. The polarization hysteresis loops and isothermal response of PMN exhibit a hysteresis at glassy to ferroelectric transition. Hysteresis effects are much stronger at lower temperatures indicating that the slowing glassy dynamics is mainly responsible for the phase transition hysteresis, and that the nonlinear effects related to electric-field induced ferroelectric domain switching become important only at higher temperatures close to the critical point.