Smearing of induced ferroelectric transition and easy imprinting of different polarization configurations in relaxor ferroelectric (Na 1/2Bi1/2)1-xBaxTiO3

(Na1/2Bi1/2)1-xBaxTiO 3 ferroelectrics behave as relaxors for 0.055 x 0.10. Inside this region, we found peculiar features distinguishing samples with compositions x 0.070-0.075, from others near the border: (a) smeared electric-field-induced ferroelectric-relaxor transition indicating a gradual transformation of ferroelectric domains in nanodomains; (b) easy imprinting by poling of different polarization configurations. This is consistent with former studies evidencing an almost exclusive formation of polarization along the poling electric field direction.