Antiferroelectricity induced by electric field in NaNbO3-based lead-free ceramics

Electric fields are known to favor a ferroelectric phase with parallel electric dipoles over an antiferroelectric phase. We demonstrate in this Letter that electric fields can induce an antiferroelectric phase out of a ferroelectric phase in a NaNbO3-based lead-free polycrystalline ceramic. Such an unlikely ferroelectric-to-antiferroelectric phase transition occurs at fields with a reversed polarity and competes with the ferroelectric polarization reversal process.