Temperature study of photoinduced wide-angle scattering in cerium-doped strontium barium niobate

Abstract

The photoinduced polarization-isotropic scattering in strontium barium niobate (SBN) doped with 0.66-mol. % cerium has been studied over a wide temperature range including the region of the relaxer phase transition. The temperature evolution of the scattering pattern has been examined with respect to changes in the domain structure and of optical parameters of the crystal resulting from the phase transition from a ferroelectric state to a paraelectric state. The scattering properties at temperatures above the ferroeletric phase are connected to the relaxer behavior of SBN. We found that a transition temperature T-c can be defined from the temperature evolution of the scattering pattern much more precisely than with conventional methods such as frequency-dependent measurements of the dielectric susceptibility. (C) 2003 Optical Society of America.