Polarization of strontium-barium niobate crystals in pulsed fields

Abstract

Polarization (ferroelectric switching) of SBN crystals in pulsed fields differs from the same process in model ferroelectrics. Polarization in most SBN crystals is characterized by slow kinetics, which can be approximated by a power-law dependence, with relaxation times of the order of seconds (in fields ). The process smoothness results in the absence of a characteristic peak in the switching-current curve. Some crystals are characterized by fast (jumplike) polarization processes, whose characteristics (the kinetics and the field dependence of the switched charge) also differ from model ones.