Abstract
Results of dielectric and resonance frequency measurements below room temperature are presented for and 0.520. It is shown that the temperature coefficient of changes sign from negative to positive around 210 and 265 K for and 200 and 260 K for Anomalies in the real part of the dielectric constant are observed around the same temperatures at which the temperature coefficient of changes sign because of the electrostrictive coupling between the elastic and dielectric responses. Low-temperature powder x-ray-diffraction (XRD) data, however, reveal only one transition from the tetragonal to monoclinic phase similar to that reported by Noheda et al. [Phys. Rev. B, 61, 8687 (2000)]. Electron-diffraction data, on the other hand, reveal yet another structural transition at lower temperatures corresponding to the second anomaly in the vs T and vs T curves. This second transition is shown to be a cell-doubling transition not observed by Noheda et al. in their XRD studies. The observation of superlattice reflections raises doubts about the correctness of the Cm space group proposed by Noheda et al. for the monoclinic phase of below the second transition temperature.
- Received 4 May 2000
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.64.054101
©2001 American Physical Society