The structural phase transition in BaTio₃in a static electric field

The effect of an external electric field on the diffraction profile of cubic BaTiO₃has been examined by high-resolution X-ray diffraction. Two remarkable changes in the 400 diffraction profiles are observed: one is a peak narrowing due to a rearrangement of grains at temperature 10–20 K above Curie temperature, and the other is a peak broadening and collapsing observed on a single grain at temperatures closer to the transition. It is also found that no second phase appears in the crystal in the temperature range related to the observations mentioned above. The results indicate that a kind of ferroelectricity can be induced by an external field even in the cubic structure.