In this article, dielectric nonlinearities in $0.5\left({\mathrm{Ba}}_{0.7}{\mathrm{Ca}}_{0.3}{\mathrm{TiO}}_3\right)-0.5\left({\mathrm{BaZr}}_{0.2}{\mathrm{Ti}}_{0.8}{\mathrm{O}}_3\right)$ thin film are studied using impedance spectroscopy and harmonic measurements, as a function of the AC measuring field, at different frequencies and upon cycling. The measurements reveal that the pinching of the hysteresis loop, characterized by a phase angle of the third harmonic close to $-270deg$, is stronger for low frequencies. This confirms that the pinching is induced by the presence of polar nanoregions (PNRs), whose responses are also strongly dependent on frequency. When repeating the measurement, the PNR contribution changes since the phase angle of the third-harmonic response evolves from pinched to conventional relaxor. This shows that strong changes in the PNR configuration can be induced, even for low AC fields. First-order reversal curves (FORCs) confirm the presence of a pinched hysteresis loop. When repeating the FORC measurement a second time, the distribution drastically changes and corresponds to a soft ferroelectric. The asymmetry of the Preisach plane measured using FORCs is confirmed by a proposed measurement strategy: unipolar impedance measurements.

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• Dielectric properties
• Ferroelectricity
• Impedance
• High-order harmonic spectroscopy