Anomalies in the sound velocities of [011]-oriented Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3-Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 single crystals studied by using Brillouin light scattering

The acoustic properties of [011]-oriented Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3-Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 single crystals were studied by using Brillouin spectroscopy over a wide temperature range under unpoled and poled conditions. Poling the crystal along the [011] direction induced significant changes in the sound velocity and the acoustic attenuation coefficient of both the longitudinal and the transverse acoustic modes at several characteristic temperatures. These acoustic anomalies could be attributed to changes in the polar character from macroscopic ferroelectric domains to mesoscopic polar regions along with quasi-static polar nanoregions and then to dynamic polar nanoregions upon heating the poled crystal.