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Motivated by the long-standing unresolved enigma of the relaxor ferroelectric ground state, we performed a high-resolution heat capacity and polarization study of the field-induced phase transition in the relaxor ferroelectric single crystal Pb(Mg(1/3)Nb(2/3))O3 (PMN) oriented along the [110] direction. We show that the discontinuous evolution of polarization as a function of the electric field or temperature is a consequence of a true first order transition from a glassy to ferroelectric state, which is accompanied by an excess heat capacity anomaly and released latent heat. We also find that in a zero field there is no ferroelectric phase transition in bulk PMN at any temperature, indicating that the nonergodic dipolar glass phase persists down to the lowest temperatures.

A high-resolution calorimetry and deuteron-nuclear magnetic resonance study of a paranematic-nematic phase transition was performed on liquid single-crystal elastomers. We show that density variations of both rodlike and pointlike cross-links strongly affect the mean value and the dispersion of local mechanical fields. The system exhibits an inherent weakly disordered orientational state composed of regions with the temperature profile of the nematic order parameter ranging from first order to supercritical. On increasing the cross-linking density the predominantly first order thermodynamic response transforms into a predominantly supercritical one.

The charge-disordered three-dimensional uniaxial relaxor ferroelectric Sr0.61Ba0.39Nb2O6 splits up into metastable polar nanoregions and paraelectric interfaces upon cooling from above Tc. The frozen polar nanoregions are verified by piezoresponse force microscopy, respond domainlike to dynamic light scattering and dielectric excitation, reveal nonergodicity at T>Tc via global aging, and coalesce into polar nanodomains below Tc. Contrastingly, the percolating system of unperturbed interfaces becomes ferroelectric with two-dimensional Ising-model-like critical exponents alpha=0, beta=1/8, and gamma=7/4, as corroborated by ac calorimetry, second harmonic generation, and susceptometry, respectively.

The study of the smectic-A to chiral smectic-C(*) phase transition of the liquid crystal S-(+)-[4-(2(')-methyl butyl) phenyl 4(')-n-octylbiphenyl-4-carboxylate] (CE8) containing dispersed hydrophilic aerosils reveals novel properties, important to understanding quenched disorder and confinement in ferroelectric liquid crystals. Smectic layer compression leads to a distribution of transition temperatures inducing smearing of the macroscopic data across the transition. A pronounced confinement-induced pretransitional tilted order is observed.

Measurements of the quasistatic and frequency dependent electric conductivity below 1 MHz were carried out on wet-spun, macroscopically oriented, calf thymus DNA bulk samples, thus effectively extending previous radio frequency data down to quasistatic time scales. The frequency dependence of the electrical conductivity in the frequency range of approximately 10(-3)-10(15) Hz agrees well with predictions of the hopping hole mechanism. Temperature dependence of the quasistatic electrical conductivity can be rather well described by the activated Arrhenius law with the activation energy of approximately 0.9 eV; however, based on the quality of the fits, the hopping ansatz cannot be ruled out.

The temperature dependence of the dielectric nonlinearities in a PMN single crystal and in 9/65/35 PLZT ceramics has been determined by measuring the first and third harmonic response as well as the dielectric behavior as a function of the dc electric field. In zero field a paraelectric-to-glass, and, in a high enough dc field, a glass-to-ferroelectriclike crossover in the temperature dependence of the nonlinear response have been observed. Both crossovers agree with the predictions of the spherical random-bond-random-field model. Relaxors thus undergo in zero field a transition to a spherical glass, while above the critical field a transition into a ferroelectric state occurs.