Anomalous elastic behavior of relaxor ferroelectric Ca0.28Ba0.72Nb2O6 single crystals

Full sets of elastic constants cij of tetragonal tungsten bronze relaxor ferroelectric Ca0.28Ba0.72Nb2O6 (CBN-28) single crystals are measured above Curie temperature up to 1503 K employing resonant ultrasound spectroscopy. Thermal expansion measurements on as-grown unpoled CBN-28 reveal the existence of a characteristic temperature T ∗ (∼800 K) for CBN-28 between the Burns temperature Tb (∼1100 K) and the temperature of maximum dielectric permittivity Tm (∼600 K). The influence of polar nanoregions (PNRs) on the elastic properties of CBN-28 is studied in detail. The temperature evolution of cij shows pronounced anomalies. All independent elastic constants evolved differently, with temperature reflecting their coupling to different types of the reorientational motion of PNRs through their interaction with acoustic waves. The anisotropy of longitudinal elastic stiffness coefficients and the deviation from Cauchy relations for CBN-28 are also studied, showing the evolution of material anisotropy and the nature of bonding interactions with temperature, respectively.