Kreisel, JBouvier, PDkhil, BChaabane, BGlazer, A MThomas, P.R.Welberry, Thomas2015-12-132015-12-130015-0193http://hdl.handle.net/1885/79447The aim of the present paper is to review and briefly discuss recent experimental results on the effect of high pressure (p > 1.5 GPa) on relaxor ferroelectrics, exemplified by Na1/2Bi1/2TiO3 and PbMg1/3Nb2/3O3. The main result is that relaxor ferroelectrics present important polar and structural pressure-instabilities, which lead to both phase transitions of the average structure and considerable changes of the local structure. It is in particular the observation of a pressure-induced suppression of the relaxor-characteristic X-ray diffuse scattering that points to important changes in the local order. The complementary use of Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and X-ray diffuse scattering allows the proposition of a mechanism for the observed changes.Keywords: Molecular structure; Pressure effects; Raman spectroscopy; Sodium compounds; X ray scattering; NBT; PMN; Relaxors; X-ray diffuse scattering; Ferroelectric materials NBT; PMN; Pressure; Relaxor200410.1080/001501904904552692015-12-11