Eur. Phys. J. B 53, 279-282 (2006)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2006-00373-8

Incomplete ferroelectricity in SrTi ¹⁸O ₃

¹ Max-Planck-Institute for Solid State Research, Heisenbergstr. 1, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
² Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, 87545, USA

Corresponding author: ^a a.bussmann-holder@fkf.mpg.de

Received: 13 July 2006
Published online: 11 October 2006

Abstract

Motivated by recent experiments demonstrating suppression of ferroelectricity with pressure in SrTi¹⁸O₃, the dynamics of the phase transition mechanism are reinvestigated within a nonlinear polarizability model. For temperatures far above the phase transition polar micro domains are formed which increase in size with decreasing temperature to freeze out at T_c without forming long range order. Experimentally, soft mode dynamics are simultaneously observed, evidencing that displacive and order/disorder features coexist. In the ferroelectric phase both components persist whereby an incomplete and inhomogeneous ferroelectric state is formed.