Soft mode in PMN-PSN ceramics

Various ordered and disordered (1–x)Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3 –x Pb(Sc1/2Nb1/2)O3 (PMN–PSN) ceramics were studied by THz transmission spectroscopy in the temperature range of 10–300 K. It is found that the dielectric relaxation dominates in the spectra in higher temperatures, T > 170 K. In contrast, below 150 K, the strength of relaxation becomes so weak that the phonon contribution can be separated. The phonon contributribution in the investigated frequency range (200 GHz–2 THz) is presumably caused by the E component of the Last mode. The component exhibits hardening on cooling in all investigated ceramics and its critical temperature in ferroelectric PMN–PSN ceramics (x = 1, 0.95) is lower than the critical temperature in PMN–PSN relaxors (x = 0.2). (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)