Revealing the role of the constant phase element in relaxor ferroelectrics

Abstract

Relaxor ferroelectrics are a type of material exhibiting electrostriction whereby a change in the material shape occurs under an applied electric field; however, although known by the community for many years the underlying mechanisms of the phenomenon and the characteristic relaxations still remain under debate. To help address this issue, the authors report an equivalent circuit analysis revealing the key role of a constant phase element in the behaviour of relaxor ferroelectric single crystals.