Electric-field-induced AFE-FE transitions and associated strain/preferred orientation in antiferroelectric PLZST

Electric-field-induced, antiferroelectric-ferroelectric (AFE-FE) phase transitions are common for AFE materials. To date, the strain and preferred orientation evolution as well as the role of the intermediate FE state during the successive AFE-FE-AFE phase transitions has not been clear. To this end, we have herein studied a typical AFE Pb0.97La0.02(Zr0.56Sn0.33Ti0.11)O3 (PLZST) material using in-situ neutron diffraction. It is striking that the AFE-FE phase transition is not fully reversible: in the electric-field-induced FE state, the induced strain exhibits an elliptical distribution, which in turn leads to significant preferred orientation in the final AFE state after withdrawal of the applied electric-field. The ω-dependent neutron diffraction patterns show clear evidence of the induced strain distribution and associated preferred orientation arising from the AFE-FE phase transition. The current work also provides an explanation for several temperature and electric-field dependent dielectric anomalies as well as unrecovered strain change which appear in AFE materials after exposure to sufficiently high electric fields.