Anisotropic dielectric function in polar nanoregions of relaxor ferroelectrics

The Letter suggests treating the infrared reflectivity spectra of single crystal perovskite relaxors as fine-grained ferroelectric ceramics: locally frozen polarization makes the dielectric function strongly anisotropic in the phonon frequency range and the random orientation of the polarization at nanoscopic scale requires taking into account the inhomogeneous depolarization field. Employing a simple effective medium approximation (the Bruggeman symmetrical formula) turns out to be sufficient for reproducing all principal features of room temperature reflectivity of Pb ( Mg 1 / 3 Nb 2 / 3 ) O 3 . One of the reflectivity bands is identified as a geometrical resonance entirely related to the nanoscale polarization inhomogeneity. The approach provides a general guide for systematic determination of the polar mode frequencies split by the inhomogeneous polarization at the nanometer scale.