Ferroelastic domain hierarchy in the intermediate state of
PbZr0.98Ti0.02O3 single crystal
Zheyi An,
Shanshan Xie,
Nan Zhang,
Jian Zhuang,
A. M. Glazer,
Wei Ren,
Zuo-Guang Ye
Affiliations
Zheyi An
Electronic Materials Research Laboratory, Key
Laboratory of the Ministry of Education and International Center for Dielectric
Research, School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong
University, Xi’an 710049, China
Shanshan Xie
Electronic Materials Research Laboratory, Key
Laboratory of the Ministry of Education and International Center for Dielectric
Research, School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong
University, Xi’an 710049, China
Nan Zhang
Electronic Materials Research Laboratory, Key
Laboratory of the Ministry of Education and International Center for Dielectric
Research, School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong
University, Xi’an 710049, China
Jian Zhuang
Electronic Materials Research Laboratory, Key
Laboratory of the Ministry of Education and International Center for Dielectric
Research, School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong
University, Xi’an 710049, China
A. M. Glazer
Department of Physics, University of
Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, England
Wei Ren
Electronic Materials Research Laboratory, Key
Laboratory of the Ministry of Education and International Center for Dielectric
Research, School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong
University, Xi’an 710049, China
Zuo-Guang Ye
Department of Chemistry and 4D LABS, Simon Fraser
University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6,
Canada
PbZrO3-based antiferroelectric crystals are of great interest in both fundamental and applied research, not only because of the antiferroelectric feature at room temperature but also because of the existence of a peculiar intermediate state at elevated temperatures. Here, we report a detailed description of domain structure change at the temperature-induced antiferroelectric-to-ferroelectric phase transition. A complex process of different types of domains is revealed to appear at different stages of the phase transition. A hierarchical ferroelastic domain structure forms in the stabilized intermediate state, where the dense domain walls show potential impact on the physical properties of the crystal.