Elastic and anelastic properties of the 0.55SrTiO3–0.45BiScO3 ceramics characteristic for relaxor ferroelectric behavior

Abstract

The low‐frequency elastic and anelastic properties of the ceramic 0.55SrTiO3–0.45BiScO3 sample have been studied. Anomalous changes of the Young's modulus and the internal friction characteristic for the ferroelectric relaxors were observed at cooling below the Burns temperature at ∼585 K. The relaxor properties of this system are confirmed by dielectric measurements and attributed to the coexistence of the polar tetragonal P4mm phase and the nonpolar cubic Pm3m phase. Elastic anomaly is assumed to be due to electrostriction relationship between spontaneous polarization of polar tetragonal domains and strain of the sample. Using the special internal friction mechanism for the first order phase transition, the size of the polar phase nuclei arising at the Burns temperature was estimated to be equal to ∼20 nm.