Emergence of high piezoelectricity from competing local polar order-disorder in relaxor ferroelectrics

Hui Liu; Xiaoming Shi; Yonghao Yao; Huajie Luo; Qiang Li; Houbing Huang; He Qi; Yuanpeng Zhang; Yang Ren; Shelly D. Kelly; Krystian Roleder; Joerg C. Neuefeind; Long Qing Chen; Xianran Xing; Jun Chen

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-36749-w

Emergence of high piezoelectricity from competing local polar order-disorder in relaxor ferroelectrics

Hui Liu, Xiaoming Shi, Yonghao Yao, Huajie Luo, Qiang Li, Houbing Huang, He Qi, Yuanpeng Zhang, Yang Ren, Shelly D. Kelly, Krystian Roleder, Joerg C. Neuefeind, Long Qing Chen, Xianran Xing, Jun Chen

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Abstract

Relaxor ferroelectrics are known for outstanding piezoelectric properties, finding a broad range of applications in advanced electromechanical devices. Decoding the origins of the enhanced properties, however, have long been complicated by the heterogeneous local structures. Here, we employ the advanced big-box refinement method by fitting neutron-, X-ray-based total scattering, and X-ray absorption spectrum simultaneously, to extract local atomic polar displacements and construct 3D polar configurations in the classical relaxor ferroelectric Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃–PbTiO₃. Our results demonstrate that prevailing order-disorder character accompanied by the continuous rotation of local polar displacements commands the composition-driven global structure evolution. The omnidirectional local polar disordering appears as an indication of macroscopic relaxor characteristics. Combined with phase-field simulations, it demonstrates that the competing local polar order-disorder between different states with balanced local polar length and direction randomness leads to a flattening free-energy profile over a wide polar length, thus giving rise to high piezoelectricity. Our work clarifies that the critical structural feature required for high piezoelectricity is the competition states of local polar rather than relaxor.

Original language	English
Article number	1007
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	14
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36749-w
State	Published - Dec 2023

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 22235002, and 22075014), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China (Grant No. 06500162), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (BX20200044, 2020M680344). A portion of this research used resources at the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The use of the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 22235002, and 22075014), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China (Grant No. 06500162), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (BX20200044, 2020M680344). A portion of this research used resources at the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The use of the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.

Funders	Funder number
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Science
Basic Energy Sciences	DE-AC02-06CH11357
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
National Natural Science Foundation of China	22235002, 22075014
China Postdoctoral Science Foundation	2020M680344, BX20200044
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities	06500162

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title = "Emergence of high piezoelectricity from competing local polar order-disorder in relaxor ferroelectrics",

abstract = "Relaxor ferroelectrics are known for outstanding piezoelectric properties, finding a broad range of applications in advanced electromechanical devices. Decoding the origins of the enhanced properties, however, have long been complicated by the heterogeneous local structures. Here, we employ the advanced big-box refinement method by fitting neutron-, X-ray-based total scattering, and X-ray absorption spectrum simultaneously, to extract local atomic polar displacements and construct 3D polar configurations in the classical relaxor ferroelectric Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–PbTiO3. Our results demonstrate that prevailing order-disorder character accompanied by the continuous rotation of local polar displacements commands the composition-driven global structure evolution. The omnidirectional local polar disordering appears as an indication of macroscopic relaxor characteristics. Combined with phase-field simulations, it demonstrates that the competing local polar order-disorder between different states with balanced local polar length and direction randomness leads to a flattening free-energy profile over a wide polar length, thus giving rise to high piezoelectricity. Our work clarifies that the critical structural feature required for high piezoelectricity is the competition states of local polar rather than relaxor.",

author = "Hui Liu and Xiaoming Shi and Yonghao Yao and Huajie Luo and Qiang Li and Houbing Huang and He Qi and Yuanpeng Zhang and Yang Ren and Kelly, {Shelly D.} and Krystian Roleder and Neuefeind, {Joerg C.} and Chen, {Long Qing} and Xianran Xing and Jun Chen",

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AU - Li, Qiang

AU - Huang, Houbing

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AU - Zhang, Yuanpeng

AU - Ren, Yang

AU - Kelly, Shelly D.

AU - Roleder, Krystian

AU - Neuefeind, Joerg C.

AU - Chen, Long Qing

AU - Xing, Xianran

AU - Chen, Jun

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Emergence of high piezoelectricity from competing local polar order-disorder in relaxor ferroelectrics

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