Lead titanate-induced abnormal ferroelectric/antiferroelectric phase transitions in Pb(Lu0.5Nb0.5)O3 solid solutions

The development of bulk materials with ferroelectric/antiferroelectric (FE/AFE) phase transitions is of importance for meeting the needs of advanced electronic equipment. Here, we report a (1 − x)Pb(Lu0.5Nb0.5)O3-xPbTiO3 (abbreviated as PLNT100x) system, which shows a particular FE/AFE-like phase transition. A partial phase diagram with low PT content was delimited on the basis of the X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimeter, second harmonic generation, ferroelectric hysteresis loops and first-order reversal curve (FORC) methods. The intermediate phase showed AFE hysteresis loops may stem from the weakly polar to the polar phase during electrical poling and the lowering long-range ordering degree. It is a guideline to modulate the electric properties of PLNT AFE system such as Curie temperature, energy storage density and pyroelectric properties, by means of the control of composition.