SOFT MODE ANOMALIES IN THE PEROVSKITE RELAXOR Pb(Mg{sub 1/3}Nb{sub 2/3})O{sub 3}

Neutron inelastic scattering measurements of the polar TO phonon mode in the cubic relaxor Pb(Mg{sub 1/3}Nb{sub 2/3})O{sub 3}, at room temperature, reveal anomalous behavior similar to that recently observed in Pb(Zn{sub 1/3}Nb{sub 2/3}){sub 0.92}Ti{sub 0.08}O{sub 3} in which the optic branch appears to drop precipitously into the acoustic branch at a finite value of the momentum transfer q = 0.2 {angstrom}{sub {minus}1}, measured from the zone center. By contrast, a recent neutron study indicates that PMN exhibits a normal TO phonon dispersion at 800 K. The authors speculate this behavior is common to all relaxor materials, and is the result of the presence of nanometer-scale polarized domains in the crystal that form below a temperature T{sub d}, which effectively prevent the propagation of long wavelength (q = 0) phonons