Burns temperature

The Burns temperature, T_d, is the temperature where a ferroelectric material, previously in paraelectric state, starts to present randomly polarized nanoregions, that are polar precursor clusters. This behaviour is typical of several, but not all, ferroelectric materials, and was observed in lead titanate (PbTiO₃), potassium niobate (KNbO₃), lead lanthanum zirconate titanate (PLZT), lead magnesium niobate (PMN), lead zinc niobate (PZN), K₂Sr₄(NbO₃)₁₀, and strontium barium niobate (SBN), Na_1/2Bi_1/2O₃ (NBT).

The Burns temperature, named from Gerald Burns, who studied this phenomenon with collaboration of Frank H. Dacol, has not been well understood yet.

References

• Burns, G.; Dacol, F. (1983). "Crystalline ferroelectrics with glassy polarization behavior". Physical Review B. 28 (5): 2527. Bibcode:1983PhRvB..28.2527B. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.28.2527.
• Kleeman, W.; Schäfer, F. J.; Rytz, D. (1986). "Crystal optical studies of precursor and spontaneous polarization in PbTiO₃". Physical Review B. 34 (11): 7873. Bibcode:1986PhRvB..34.7873K. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.34.7873.
• Prosandeev, S. A.; Vakhrushev, S. B.; Okuneva, N. M.; Markovin, P. A.; Raevski, I. P.; Zaharchenko, I. N.; Prosandeeva, M. S. (2005). "The Significance of the Burns temperature in relaxor PMN". arXiv:cond-mat/0506132.