BZT:a soft pseudo-spin glass

In an attempt to understand the origin of relaxor ferroelectricity, it is shown that interesting behaviour of the onset of non-ergodicity and of precursor nanodomains found in first principles simulations of the relaxor alloy $\mathrm {Ba(Zr}_{1-x}\mathrm{Ti}_{x}\mathrm{)O}_3$ can be understood easily by a simple mapping to a soft pseudo-spin glass.