Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3: A minimal induced-moment soft pseudospin glass perspective

An argument that relaxor ferroelectricity in the isovalent alloy Ba(Zr1-xTix)O-3 can be understood as an induced-moment soft pseudospin glass on the B ions of the ABO(3) matrix [Sherrington, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 227601 (2013)] is extended to the experimentally paradigmatic but theoretically more complex heterovalent relaxor Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O-3. It is argued that interesting behavior of the onset of nonergodicity, frequency-dependent permittivity peaks, and precursor nanodomains can be understood from analogous considerations of the B ions, with the displacements of the Pb ions a largely independent, but distracting, side feature. This contrasts with conventional conceptualizations.