Origin of the Waterfall effect in phonon dispersion of relaxor perovskites

We have undertaken an inelastic neutron scattering study of the perovskite relaxor ferroelectric Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O-3 with 8% PbTiO3 (PZN-8%PT) in order to elucidate the origin of the previously reported unusual kink on the low frequency transverse phonon dispersion curve (known as the waterfall effect). We show that its position (q(wf)) depends on the choice of the Brillouin zone and that the relation of q(wf) to the size of the polar nanoregions is highly improbable. The waterfall phenomenon is explained in the framework of a simple model of coupled damped harmonic oscillators representing the acoustic and optic phonon branches.