Field-induced effect in the <111>-oriented 0.70Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–0.30PbTiO3 single crystals

Temperature-dependent dielectric constant, X-ray diffraction(XRD), thermally stimulated discharging current (TSDC) and polarization hysteresis loops for <111>-oriented 0.70Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–0.30PbTiO3 crystals after poling under different fields were measured. Comparing with unpoled sample during heating, except that there is a transition from the state of normal ferroelectric rhombohedral (macro-domain) to the state of relaxor ferroelectric rhombohedral (micro-domain) for the poled samples, it was found that no other phase transition was induced by poling fields. XRD showed that after poling the piezoelectric elongation of the unit cell occurred along the polar direction. It was suggested that an extra peak in the T–ε curve of poled sample around 105 °C is not only caused by a macro–micro domain transition but also caused by the depolarization process of 180° and 71° domain switching simultaneously.