Anomalies of Brillouin Light Scattering in Selected Perovskite Relaxor Ferroelectric Crystals

Abstract

Compositionally disordered perovskite compounds have been one of the exotic topics of research during the past several years. Colossal piezoelectric and electrostrictive effects have been observed in disordered perovskite ferroelectric materials. The key ingredient in the physical behavior of disordered perovskites is the nucleation and growth of the local dipolar regions called polar nanoregions (PNRs). PNRs begin to nucleate far above the temperature of the dielectric maximum Tm and exhibit varied relaxation behavior with temperature. The evidence for the existence of various stages in the relaxation dynamics of PNRs was revealed through the study of the temperature evolution of optical phonons by Raman scattering. The quasi-static regime of PNRs is characterized by the strong coupling between the local polarization and strain with the local structural phase transition and the critical slowing of the relaxation time. Strong anomalies in the frequency and the width of the acoustic phonons, and emergence of the central peak in the quasi-static region of the relaxation dynamics of PNRs have been observed through Brillouin scattering studies. In this review, we discuss the anomalies observed in Brillouin scattering in selected disordered perovskite ferroelectrics crystals such as Pb(Mg1/3Ta2/3)O3, Pb(Sc1/2Ta1/2)O3, 0.65PIN-0.35PT and Sr0.97Ca0.03TiO3 to understand dynamical behavior of PNRs.