Characterisation of Phase Transition in Strontium Barium Niobate by Bond Method

The high quality Sr0.61Ba0.39Nb2O6 (SBN61) single crystals without any striations were obtained by Czochralski pulling method. The temperature dependence of the lattice parameters of the investigated crystals was studied using a precision X-ray Bond's method. The angular precision of the goniometer 1 arcsine and metric value of Cu K1 (λ = 1.54059292Å) allowed to obtain high precision and accuracy of lattice parameter measurements. The received results allowed to determine the Curie temperature and character of the phase transition in this material. The lattice parameter a monotonically increases and shows hardly visible inflection point at TC when increasing the temperature. The temperature dependence of the lattice parameter c displays quite distinct temperature behaviour. Contrastingly, it decreases with increasing the temperature experiencing an evident anomaly in the vicinity of the structural phase transition point. Obtained value of the ferroelectric phase transition point is TC = 346 ± 3K.