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We present neutron diffraction, dielectric permittivity and photoconductivity measurements, evidencing that lead-magnesium niobate experiences a diffuse phase transformation between the spherical glass and quadrupole glass phases, in the temperature interval between 400 K and 500 K, with the quadrupole phase possessing extremely high magnitudes of dielectric permittivity. Our analysis shows that the integral diffuse scattering intensity may serve as an order parameter for this transformation. Our experimental dielectric permittivity data support this choice. These data are important for the aplications desiring giant dielectric responses, in a wide temperature intervals and not related to electron's excitations., Comment: 6 figures

Synchrotron x-ray scattering studies of anti-ferroelectric nanoregions (AFR) as fluctuations, which give rise to 1/2(hk0) superlattice reflections (alpha spots), were systematically performed in Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3 (PMN) ferroelectric relaxor. Separation of the alpha spots from underlying diffuse scattering background allowed studying them as separate entities for the first time. AFR fluctuations were shown to be different from the chemical nanodomains (CND) and ferroelectric polar nano-regions (PNR). Instead, they are formed by anti-parallel short-range correlated Pb^2+ displacements that lead to unit cell doubling in <110> directions, based upon structure factor calculations. Correlation length is only on the 30 Ang scale, which defines the effective average size of the AFR fluctuations. This size remains temperature independent while the total number of AFRs significantly increases near the Vogel-Fulcher freezing temperature of 220 K. Presence of local fluctuations produced by anti-parallel atomic displacements can explain relaxor behavior as a result of competition between ferroelectric and anti-ferroelectrics type polar ordering in the glass-like systems., Comment: RevTeX, 8 pages, 7 figures, to Physical Review B

Temperature dependent studies of the 1/2(hk0) superlattice reflections \alpha spots by synchrotron x-ray scattering measurements were performed in (PMN) and (PMN-xPT) with Ti doping x<0.32 single crystals. Separation of the \alpha spots from the underlying diffuse scattering background allowed studying them as separate entities for the first time. Structure factor calculations have shown that alpha spots constitute the presence of a new kind of anti-ferrodistortive nanoregions (AFR) in the form of fluctuations produced by anti-parallel short-range correlated <110> Pb^2+ displacements. AFR appear to be different and unrelated to the chemical nanodomains (CND) and ferroelectric polar nanoregions (PNR). Simultaneous presence of AFR and PNR can explain relaxor behavior as a result of competition between randomly occurring ferroelectric and anti-ferroelectric fluctuations. Temperature dependence of the \alpha spots in PMN showed a direct correlation with the freezing phase transition near Tf~220 K., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, Conference-Fundamental Physics of Ferroelectrics 2003

The temperature dependence of the superlattice reflections: a) F spots and b) alpha spots in a lead magnesium niobate (PMN) single crystals containing 0% and 6% of PbTiO3 (PT) has been studied using synchrotron x-ray scattering techniques. (No superlattice reflections were found in PMN doped with 32% PT). Analysis of the temperature dependence of the alpha spots suggests the existence of the correlated anti-parallel atomic displacements that form nanoregions different from the chemical nanodomains. While the correlation length is temperature independent, the magnitude of these displacements increases on cooling below the freezing temperature Tf. Intensities of the alpha spots above this temperature become indistinguishable from the background. Our results show that value of Tf for each composition is very close to the one obtained from a Vogel-Fulcher fit to the frequency dependence of the dielectric constant maximum Tm. The relation of these correlated anti-ferrodistortive fluctuations to polar ferroelectric nanodomains and relaxor behavior needs further study., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, Conference-Fundamental Physics of Ferroelectrics 2001