Anomaly in the conductivity relaxation parameters at the phase transition of ferroelectric materials: A time domain study

The influence of the ferroelectric to paraelectric transition on the relaxation parameters of conductive processes in ferroelectric materials is studied in the time domain. Three well-known ferroelectric systems were chosen with transition temperatures in different regions, these are, high-temperature PbNb2O6-based ceramics; nanostructured Pb(Zr0.6Ti0.4)O-3 ceramics; and submicron BaTiO3. The thermal evolution of relaxation parameters shows clear anomalies in their typical behavior when conductivity processes arise in the temperature range where the ferroelectric transition takes place. The method here described allows obtaining information about the correlation between charge transport and the motion of the off-center ions at the phase transition. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3505932]