Fabrication and electro-optic effect of new ferroelectric crystallized glasses

Abstract

Strontium barium niobate Sr_xBa_1-xNb₂O₆ (SBN) crystals with x=0.25-0.75 are known to exhibit extremely large electro-optic effects. In this study, crystallized glasses consisting of SBN nanocrystals with a tetragonal tungsten-bronze structure are synthesized using a conventional glass crystallization technique in SrO-BaO-Nb2O5-B2O3 glasses. Nanocrystals of Sr_0.5Ba_0.5Nb₂O₆ and Sr_0.61Ba_0.39Nb₂O₆ are found to have rod-like shapes with an average diameter of 20-40 nm and to exhibit ferroelectricities. Sufficient optical transparencies are observed at the wavelength of 1.55 μm , and the electro-optic phenomenon is confirmed from the crystallized glasses with SBN nanocrystals.