Diverging Relaxation Times of Domain Wall Motion Indicating Glassy Dynamics in Ferroelastics

Abstract

Single crystals of PbZrO 3 and LaAlO 3 have been studied by Dynamic Mechanical Analysis measurements in the low frequency range f = 0.02-50 Hz. The complex Young's modulus exhibits a quite rich behavior and depends strongly on the direction of the applied dynamic force. The low frequency elastic response in the [110] c -direction is dominated by domain wall motion, leading to a superelastic softening effect below T c . With decreasing temperature this superelastic softening gradually disappears, due to an increasing relaxation time τ DW of domain wall motion. For PbZrO 3 , τ DW seems to diverge at a finite temperature T VF , indicating glassy behavior of domain freezing.

Structural Phase Transition and In-Situ Energy Storage Pathway in Nonpolar Materials: A Review

“…In fact, both FE-to-PE and AFE-to-PE transitions can be understood from the viewpoint of ferroelastic phase transition, which is related to a change in lattice symmetry around T C [87,88]. In many cases, ferroelasticity or antiferroelasticity is a secondary or improper effect, since the driving force is related to cation or molecular ordering and the softening of optical phonon branches [89,90].…”

Lattice effect on charge and magnetic ordering in La 1/3 Sr 2/3 FeO 3− δ investigated by mechanical spectroscopy

“…Mechanical spectroscopy is a well-known probe for the study of phase transitions and relaxations of relaxing entities such as point defects, dislocations, grain boundaries, and domain walls in solids [8,9,12,[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40]. The octahedral tilting transition P m 3m ↔ R 3c appears around 500 K showing up as a huge modulus softening with the decrease in temperature in nearly oxygen stoichiometric LSFO [23].…”

“…In some cases, a freezing of the domain wall motion occurs at lower temperatures where the domain walls can no longer follow the dynamically applied external force [27,29,33]. As a result, clear modulus hardening and a mechanical dissipation peak were observed [27].…”