918 research outputs found
Two-step phase changes in cubic relaxor ferroelectrics
The field-driven conversion between the zero-field-cooled frozen relaxor
state and a ferroelectric state of several cubic relaxors is found to occur in
at least two distinct steps, after a period of creep, as a function of time.
The relaxation of this state back to a relaxor state under warming in zero
field also occurs via two or more sharp steps, in contrast to a one-step
relaxation of the ferroelectric state formed by field-cooling. An intermediate
state can be trapped by interrupting the polarization. Giant pyroelectric noise
appears in some of the non-equilibrium regimes. It is suggested that two
coupled types of order, one ferroelectric and the other glassy, may be required
to account for these data.Comment: 27 pages with 8 figures to appear in Phys. Rev.
Aging in the Relaxor Ferroelectric PMN/PT
The relaxor ferroelectric
(PbMnNbO)(PbTiO), ,
(PMN/PT(90/10)) is found to exhibit several regimes of complicated aging
behavior. Just below the susceptibility peak there is a regime exhibiting
rejuvenation but little memory. At lower temperature, there is a regime with
mainly cumulative aging, expected for simple domain-growth. At still lower
temperature, there is a regime with both rejuvenation and memory, reminiscent
of spin glasses. PMN/PT (88/12) is also found to exhibit some of these aging
regimes. This qualitative aging behavior is reminiscent of that seen in
reentrant ferromagnets, which exhibit a crossover from a domain-growth
ferromagnetic regime into a reentrant spin glass regime at lower temperatures.
These striking parallels suggest a picture of competition in PMN/PT (90/10)
between ferroelectric correlations formed in the domain-growth regime with
glassy correlations formed in the spin glass regime. PMN/PT (90/10) is also
found to exhibit frequency-aging time scaling of the time-dependent part of the
out-of-phase susceptibility for temperatures 260 K and below. The stability of
aging effects to thermal cycles and field perturbations is also reported.Comment: 8 pages RevTeX4, 11 figures; submitted to Phys. Rev.
Nontrivial dependence of dielectric stiffness and SHG on dc bias in relaxors and dipole glasses
Dielectric permittivity and Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) studies in the
field-cooled mode show a linear dependence of dielectric stiffness (inverse
dielectric permittivity) on dc bias in PMN-PT crystals and SHG intensity in
KTaO:Li at small Li concentrations. We explain this unusual result in the
framework of a theory of transverse, hydrodynamic-type, instability of local
polarization.Comment: 5 figure
Barkhausen Noise in a Relaxor Ferroelectric
Barkhausen noise, including both periodic and aperiodic components, is found
in and near the relaxor regime of a familiar relaxor ferroelectric,
PbMgNbO, driven by a periodic electric field. The
temperature dependences of both the amplitude and spectral form show that the
size of the coherent dipole moment changes shrink as the relaxor regime is
entered, contrary to expectations based on some simple models.Comment: 4 pages RevTeX4, 5 figures; submitted to Phys Rev Let
Equation of state of charged colloidal suspensions and its dependence on the thermodynamic route
The thermodynamic properties of highly charged colloidal suspensions in
contact with a salt reservoir are investigated in the framework of the
Renormalized Jellium Model (RJM). It is found that the equation of state is
very sensitive to the particular thermodynamic route used to obtain it.
Specifically, the osmotic pressure calculated within the RJM using the contact
value theorem can be very different from the pressure calculated using the
Kirkwood-Buff fluctuation relations. On the other hand, Monte Carlo (MC)
simulations show that both the effective pair potentials and the correlation
functions are accurately predicted by the RJM. It is suggested that the lack of
self-consistency in the thermodynamics of the RJM is a result of neglected
electrostatic correlations between the counterions and coions
Spanning avalanches in the three-dimensional Gaussian Random Field Ising Model with metastable dynamics: field dependence and geometrical properties
Spanning avalanches in the 3D Gaussian Random Field Ising Model (3D-GRFIM)
with metastable dynamics at T=0 have been studied. Statistical analysis of the
field values for which avalanches occur has enabled a Finite-Size Scaling (FSS)
study of the avalanche density to be performed. Furthermore, direct measurement
of the geometrical properties of the avalanches has confirmed an earlier
hypothesis that several kinds of spanning avalanches with two different fractal
dimensions coexist at the critical point. We finally compare the phase diagram
of the 3D-GRFIM with metastable dynamics with the same model in equilibrium at
T=0.Comment: 16 pages, 17 figure
Effects of two plant oil-based products on the mortality of red palm weevil and morpho-physiological characteristics of palm
The red palm weevil (RPW), Rhynchophorous ferrugineus Oliver (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), is an economically important, tissue-boring pest of date palm in many parts of the world. The aim of the work was to investigate the effects of two plant oil-based products (BRK6 and BRK9) on the mortality of RPW (Exp. 1) and morpho-physiological characteristics of palm (Exp. 2). Laboratory experiments showed that the two mixture of oils BRK6 and BRK9 showed larvicide and adulticide properties. These properties were more pronounced on BRK9 than BRK6. The lethal concentration for 50% of individuals (LC50) calculated by probit, of BRK6 was 0.22% (for the 90% of individuals LC90 = 0.34) while for BRK9 the calculated LC50 was 0.10% (LC90 = 0.66). These data show that a smaller amount of BRK9 oil was required to induce the 50% of mortality of RPW larvae. As regards to the adults, BRK9 and BRK6 were effective only at the highest concentration (2 and 5%, respectively). Finally, injection of BRK9 into the palm trunk showed to promote chlorophyll content and photosynthesis of leaves thanks to a good translocation of zinc
Polarization relaxation in thin-film relaxors compared to that in ferroelectrics
Epitaxial thin films of relaxor PbMg1/3Nb2/3O3 and PbSc0.5Nb0.5O3, and
ferroelectric PbZr0.65Ti0.35O3, Pb0.955La0.045Zr0.65Ti0.35O3, and
Ba0.4Sr0.6TiO3 were prepared, and their dielectric properties were studied in a
broad range of the measurement conditions. In the ferroelectric state, the
presence and the change of configuration of the domains determined both the
dynamic dielectric nonlinearity and the polarization hysteresis. In thin-film
relaxors, the orientation of the randomly interacting dipoles in a random field
was responsible for the dynamic dielectric nonlinearity, while the observed
hysteresis was suggested to arise due to connection between the applied field
and the relaxation times of both the dipoles and the internal field. In
thin-film (Ba,Sr)TiO3, the high-temperature dielectric hysteresis was found to
be relaxorlike.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. B 17.03.200
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