Universal Static and Dynamic Properties of the Structural Transition in Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3

TL;DR

This study compares the structural transition properties of PZN and PMN relaxor materials, revealing their similarities in phonon and diffuse scattering behaviors and suggesting they belong to the same universality class.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive neutron scattering analysis showing PZN and PMN share similar temperature-dependent behaviors, challenging previous notions of their differences below the transition temperature.

Findings

Both PZN and PMN show similar soft mode recovery and phonon broadening below T_c.

Diffuse scattering onset occurs at high temperature Burns temperature in both materials.

PZN exhibits additional broadening of Bragg peaks due to structural inhomogeneity.

Abstract

The relaxors Pb(Zn$_{1/3}$Nb$_{2/3}$)O$_{3}$ (PZN) and Pb(Mg$_{1/3}$Nb$_{2/3}$)O$_{3}$ (PMN) have very similar properties based on the dielectric response around the critical temperature $T_{c}$ (defined by the structural transition under the application of an electric field). It has been widely believed that these materials are quite different below $T_{c}$ with the unit cell of PMN remaining cubic while in PZN the low temperature unit cell is rhombohedral in shape. However, this has been clarified by recent high-energy x-ray studies which have shown that PZN is rhombohedral only in the skin while the shape of the unit cell in the bulk is nearly cubic. In this study we have performed both neutron elastic and inelastic scattering to show that the temperature dependence of both the diffuse and phonon scattering in PZN and PMN is very similar. Both compounds show a nearly identical recovery of the soft optic mode and a broadening of the acoustic mode below $T_{c}$. The diffuse scattering in PZN is suggestive of an onset at the high temperature Burns temperature similar to that in PMN. In contrast to PMN, we observe a broadening of the Bragg peaks in both the longitudinal and transverse directions below $T_{c}$. We reconcile this additional broadening, not observed in PMN, in terms of structural inhomogeneity in PZN. Based on the strong similarities between PMN and PZN, we suggest that both materials belong to the same universality class and discuss the relaxor transition in terms of the three-dimensional Heisenberg model with cubic anisotropy in a random field.