The glassy behavior of relaxor ferroelectrics

Abstract

Evidence has been found that the relaxor ferroelectric bears strong resemblance to spin and dipolar glasses. The dielectric dispersion will be shown to have a characteristic freezing temperature, near which the relaxation time distribution strongly broadens extending into the macroscopic time regime. Below this characteristic temperature, a remanent polarization can be sustained. It is proposed that the glassy behavior arises due to correlations between phase separated superparaelectric moments.