Ferroelectric switching of strontium–barium–niobate crystals in pulsed fields

In strontium–barium–niobate (SBN) polarization and switching processes under pulsed field differ from those in model ferroelectrics. In most SBN crystals, the polarization changes smoothly with relaxation times up to seconds even under fields strongly exceeding the coercive field. The kinetics are described with a power law. In some samples of a variety of compositions faster changes have been observed, but their characteristics fundamentally differ from those in model ferroelectrics. The peculiarities are evidently caused by the relaxor properties of SBN.