Phase transition describes a mutational behavior of matter states at a critical transition temperature or external field. Despite the phase-transition orders are well sorted by classic thermodynamic theory, ambiguous situations interposed between the first- and second-order transitions were exposed one after another. Here, we report discovery of phase-transition frustration near a tricritical composition point in ferroelectric Pb(Zr1-xTix)O3. Our multi-scale transmission electron microscopy characterization reveals a number of geometrically frustrated microstructure features such as self-assembled hierarchical domain structure, degeneracy of mesoscale domain tetragonality and decoupled polarization-strain relationship. Associated with deviation from the classic mean-field theory, dielectric critical exponent anomalies and temperature dependent birefringence data unveil that the frustrated transition order stems from intricate competition of short-range polar orders and their decoupling to long-range lattice deformation. With supports from effective Hamiltonian Monte Carlo simulations, our findings point out a potentially universal mechanism to comprehend the abnormal critical phenomena occurring in phase-transition materials.

Piezo-/ferroelectrics are essential materials for electromechanical sensors and actuators and energy harvesters in a wide range of technological applications. The demand for piezo-/ferroelectric materials with high Curie temperature (TC) arises...

Lead zirconate PbZrO3 (PZ)-based antiferroelectric (AFE) materials have received tremendous attention due to their potential applications in high density energy storage capacitors. However, PZ suffers from an ultrahigh critical electric...

BiScO3–Pb(Cd1/3Nb2/3)O3–PbTiO3 single crystals with high quality have been successfully grown by the top-seeded solution growth method and the single ferroelastic domain structures and ferroelectric behaviors have also been reviewed.