Analysis of internal-stress-induced phase transition by thermal treatment

The dielectric behavior of PMN–xPT single crystals near morphotropic phase boundary has been investigated. A thermal treatment induced dielectric permittivity anomaly, a peak-shoulder below Tm, was found. Internal-stress-induced macrodomain formation has been observed in quenched PMN–xPT single crystals. Quenching from different temperatures, the dielectric permittivity spectra of PMN–xPT single crystals show different results. The origins of the phenomena are discussed. The correlations among polar regions in quenching samples on zero field-heating process are analyzed using Sherrington–Kirkpatrick relationship. The Ti4+ content dependence of quenching effect is also investigated in this paper. A pressure during quenching is found to influence the internal stress significantly.