We investigated the lattice dynamics of the prototypic ferroelectric barium titanate close to its ferroelectric-paraelectric phase transition aiming at a better understanding of the atomistic nature of the transition. The usage of time-resolved X-ray techniques allows to disentangle lattice motion and unit cell changes, which, in part, relate to the ferroelectric polarization. In the quasi-static case both the electrical and the laser excitation show a mean-field, simple thermal behaviour, while for time scales shorter than nanoseconds the impulsive nature of the excitation becomes visible.
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