Electric-field-induced orthorhombic to rhombohedral phase transition in [111]C-oriented 0.92Pb(Zn1∕3Nb2∕3)O3−0.08PbTiO3

Strain-field measurements and in situ polarized light microscopy have been used to evidence a hysteretic, irreversible electric-field-induced transition to a quasimonodomain rhombohedral phase in [111]C-oriented, pseudo-orthorhombic PZN−8PT [0.92Pb(Zn1∕3Nb2∕3)O3−0.08PbTiO3]. This first-order transition most likely occurs following the simplest path O-MB-R, i.e., via polarization rotation in the (10-1)C plane. The measured strain-field loops are compared to those for rhombohedral, [111]C-oriented PMN−28PT [0.72Pb(Mg1∕3Nb2∕3)O3−0.28PbTiO3] and PMN−33PT [0.67Pb(Mg1∕3Nb2∕3)O3−0.33PbTiO3] where no electric-field-induced transition is possible.