ArXiv · 2026
Polar nanoregions (PNRs) are central to understanding the exceptional dielectric and piezoelectric properties of relaxor ferroelectrics and are key to advancing dielectrics for high-energy storage. However, direct real-space imaging of their formation and evolution remains a major challenge in condensed matter physics. Here, we report the real-space mappings of both PNRs and chemically ordered regions (CORs) in the prototypical relaxor Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3 and their temperature dependence using convergent-beam electron diffraction (CBED) combined with four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy (4D-STEM). The results reveal that CORs, with sizes of 2-5 nm, remain static with temperature and act to suppress PNR growth. In contrast, PNRs evolve from isolated 2-5 nm regions at room temperature to interconnected structures ~10 nm in size at low temperatures, indicative of a percolation transition. These observations support the random-field model, in which PNRs emerge from a paraelectric matrix and their growth and collective interactions are constrained by random local fields associated with CORs.
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