Pressure effect on the formation kinetics of ferroelectric domain structure under first order phase transitions

Abstract Within the framework of Landau – Ginzburg theory the kinetics of domain structure formation in ferroelectrics that undergo first order phase transition was investigated under the influence of hydrostatic pressure. It was established that mechanical action increases the tendency of nonequilibrium system to the formation of stable polydomain structure. Numerical analysis showed that the process of domain ordering can proceed both directly and with formation of short-living metastable polydomain phase. It was found that the incubation period of domain structure formation can be observed at the initial stage of relaxation. Using the KNO3 crystal as an example, it was shown that the time of evolution of the system to the thermodynamic equilibrium is inversely proportional to the pressure value. It was established that in KDP crystals near phase transition point ( T C –T  p c r increases with the growth of quenching temperature.