Polarization Rotation and Monoclinic Distortion in Ferroelectric (Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3–BaTiO3 Single Crystals under Electric Fields

Abstract

The features of the crystal structures and spontaneous polarization (Ps) under an electric field (E) have been reviewed for (1 − x)(Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3–xBaTiO3 (BNT–BT). In-situ measurements of high-resolution synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction (SR-XRD) under electric fields show that single crystals with x = 0 (BNT) and 5% have a monoclinic distortion in space group Cc at 25 °C. The SR-XRD study combined with density functional theory (DFT) calculations demonstrates that BNT–5%BT exhibits a rotation of Ps in the monoclinic a–c plane by 2° under an E of 70 kV/cm along the <001> pseudo-cubic direction, which is much larger than BNT.