Dielectric and Elastic Properties of Mixed Ferroelectric Material Potassium TANTALUM(1-X) Niobium(x) Oxide

Ferroelectricity is one of the important fields in solid state physics because of its scientific and technological significance. This dissertation describes dielectric and elastic properties of the ferroelectric system KTa_{1-x}Nb_{x}O _3 (KTN) with niobium in the concentration range 1.2% ~ 16%. The occurrence and the nature of the phase transition in mixed ferroelectric systems is an intriguing topic due to the introduction of configurational disorder. Experimental results have shown that the critical temperature T _{c} in the KTN system strongly depends on the concentration of Nb and that the transverse optic soft mode frequency decreases as the concentration of Nb increases. However, the origin of the phase transition in this system is not clearly known. In particular, it is not yet clear whether or not the transition is driven by a soft mode and how the nature of the transition evolves as the Nb concentration is changed. This dissertation describes experimental work on the dielectric and elastic behaviors of the KTN system. The results on the linear and the nonlinear dielectric constants and on the electric polarization of KTN reveal (a) the occurrence of a structural transition with the appearance of ferroelectric macroregions at T_{c }, even for relatively low impurity concentrations (b) the presence of polar microregions significantly above T_{c}. The phase transition in KTN is driven by the interaction between effective dipolar moments d* rather than a soft mode. Our experimental results also reveal the coexistence of both dipolar glass like and ferroelectric behaviors in KTN with low Nb concentrations. Elastic results obtained on KTN provide direct evidence of the two distinct stages which the transition go through when approaching the critical temperature T _{c}. The ultrasonic measurements of the longitudinal elastic constant C_ {11} shows the softening of C _{11} with a (T-T_ {c})^{-mu} dependence at intermediate temperature in the first stage. In the sample with high niobium concentrations, the exponent value is found to be about 0.5 and can be explained by the interaction of the sound waves with small fluctuations of the polarization. For low Nb concentration samples, however, mu increases to 2.5. At lower temperature, i.e. closer to T_{c}, C_ {11} appears to deviate from the above divergence, indicating a change in the elastic behavior. This change is accompanied by a steep rise in ultrasonic attenuation, suggesting the presence of polar clusters. It is the interaction between these clusters that eventually leads to the transition.