Local atomic order and hierarchical polar nanoregions in a classical relaxor ferroelectric.

ABSTRACT: The development of useful structure-function relationships for materials that exhibit correlated nanoscale disorder requires adequately large atomistic models which today are obtained mainly via theoretical simulations. Here, we exploit our recent advances in structure-refinement methodology to demonstrate how such models can be derived directly from simultaneous fitting of 3D diffuse- and total-scattering data, and we use this approach to elucidate the complex nanoscale atomic correlations in the classical relaxor ferroelectric PbMg_1/3Nb_2/3O₃ (PMN). Our results uncover details of ordering of Mg and Nb and reveal a hierarchical structure of polar nanoregions associated with the Pb and Nb displacements. The magnitudes of these displacements and their alignme

SUBMITTER: Eremenko M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6588601 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature