Changes, provoked by poling in the corona discharge and isothermal annealing, in the elemental composition of the surface layer and in the electret properties of PbMg13/Nb23/O3 (PMN) single crystals have been studied. Air oxidation has been found to enrich the surface with Mg. This confirms the authors finding that, upon air oxidation, the surface of multicomponent oxide compounds is enriched with the element whose heat of oxide formation is greater relative to one oxygen molecule. Sizeable variations of the PMN surface composition correlate with changes in the electret potential and in its relaxation time. The temperature critical for the changes to occur in elemental composition and electret properties has been found to be 500 degrees C.
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