The main scope of our research is to understand lattice and vibrational dynamics of polar materials, like ferroelectrics, relaxors, biological macromolecules, etc., which are usually probed with laser beam as a function of temperature, under external electric field, and pressure. The main focus is on critical dynamics related to ferroelectric and other relaxation-like phase transitions in ferroelectrics and relaxors, studying temperature- and frequency-dependent soft modes and relaxations in the vicinity of phase transitions. Other topics studied within this research area cover e.g. lattice-mode-coupling phenomena in ferroelectrics, local modes in strongly anharmonic crystals, and geometric resonances coming from ferroelectric domain structure in domain-engineered ferroelectrics.
Intensity maps showing the dependence of Raman spectra of a PbSc1/2Nb1/2O3 thin film on the angle between the transmission direction of the analyzer and one of the in-plane pseudocubic axes of the film. Left panel (a) corresponds to cross-polarized geometry while the right panel (b) corresponds to the parallel-polarized geometry.
