Comment on "Giant electromechanical coupling of relaxor ferroelectrics controlled by polar nanoregion vibrations".

Gehring, P M; Xu, Zhijun; Stock, C; Xu, Guangyong; Parshall, D; Harriger, L; Gehring, C A; Li, Xiaobing et al. · Sci Adv · 2019

other · Level V

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Abstract

Manley <i>et al.</i> (<i>Science Advances</i>, 16 September 2016, p. e1501814) report the splitting of a transverse acoustic phonon branch below <i>T</i> <i><sub>C</sub></i> in the relaxor ferroelectric Pb[(Mg<sub>1/3</sub>Nb<sub>2/3</sub>)<sub>1-<i>x</i></sub> Ti <i><sub>x</sub></i> ]O<sub>3</sub> with <i>x</i> = 0.30 using neutron scattering methods. Manley <i>et al.</i> argue that this splitting occurs because these phonons hybridize with local, harmonic lattice vibrations associated with polar nanoregions. We show that splitting is absent when the measurement is made using a different neutron wavelength, and we suggest an alternative interpretation.