Complete stress-induced depolarization of relaxor ferroelectric crystals without transition through a non-polar phase

The development of relaxor ferroelectric single crystal technology is driven by the ability to tailor ferroelectric properties through domain engineering not achievable in polycrystalline materials. In this study, three types of domain-engineered rhombohedral Pb(In 1/2 Nb 1/2 )O 3 -Pb(Mg 1/3 Nb 2/3 )O 3 -PbTiO 3 crystals were subjected to transverse high strain rate loading. The experimental results indicate that the domain configuration has a significant effect on the stress-induced depolarization and the associated charge released. A complete depolarization of the single-domain crystals with 3m symmetry is observed, while multidomain crystals with 4mm and mm2 symmetries retain a fraction of their initial remanent polarization. The complete depolarization of single-domain crystals is unique without transition to a non-polar phase, with a stress-induced charge density of 0.48 C/m 2 . This is up to three times higher than that of the multidomain crystals and PbZr x Ti 1-x O 3 ferroelectric ceramics that are critical for ultrahigh-power transducer applications. The main offering of this work is to propose a detailed mechanism for complete stress-induced depolarization in ferroelectric crystals which doe s not involve an intermediate transformation to a non-polar phase.