In Pb(Sc0.5Ta0.5)O3 it has been shown that the degree of order in the B‐site Sc3+, Ta5+ cations can be controlled by suitable thermal annealing. For samples which have been well‐ordered by long annealing, dielectric measurements on single crystals show a normal first‐order ferroelectric phase change at 13 °C and a maximum low‐temperature spontaneous polarization of 23.0 μc/cm2. With increasing disorder, the crystals begin to exhibit the classical diffuse phase transition of a ferroelectric relaxor, with a broad Curie range and strong low‐frequency dielectric dispersion in the transition range. X‐ray diffraction measurements of the size of the ordered microregions suggest that ordering proceeds by different mechanisms in single‐crystal versus ceramic samples, though the resulting effects upon the dielectric behavior are very similar.
展开▼
