Search for lamellar fluctuations in incipient ferroelectrics
KTaO3 (as well as SrTiO3) has long been considered a prototypical paraelectric, lying at or extremely close to a quantum critical point such that slight compositional substitutions induce low temperature ferroelectricity or even superconductivity to emerge as ground-states. However, recently Guzman-Verri et al. performed calculations including coupling of the ferroelectric order to strain gradients (flexoelectric coupling)1 and predict an incommensurately modulated phase which can be suppressed to zero temperature by thermal fluctuations. Thus, the behavior of KTaO3 is not dominated by quantum fluctuations but rather can be understood by classical thermal fluctuations. Here, we propose to measure the softening of the TA (hybridized TA-TO) mode close to the zone center in KTaO3 with high momentum and energy resolution and look for signatures of incommensurate correlations in the (quasi-)elastic scattering. Phonon spectroscopy on the cold TAS THALES can provide decisive experimental evidence for (or against) this new scenario for an alleged quantum paraelectric.
The data is currently only available to download if you are a member of the proposal team.
The recommended format for citing this dataset in a research publication is in the following format:
WEBER Frank; IVANOV Alexandre; LACMANN Tom Laurin; ROSENKRANZ Stephan; STEFFENS Paul and Yuliia Tymoshenko. (2023). Search for lamellar fluctuations in incipient ferroelectrics. Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) doi:10.5291/ILL-DATA.7-01-603
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This data is not yet public
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