Title: Editorial

In this issue of the journal ``Condensed Matter Physics'' we publish a part of Proceedings of the 2nd Ukrainian-Polish-Lithuanian Meeting on Ferroelectric Physics (UPL MFP-2). The meeting was held on September, 9-13, 2012 in Lviv (Ukraine). It was organized by the Institute of Physical Optics of the Ministry of Science, Youth and Sports of Ukraine.

A series of such conferences is a continuation of bilateral Ukrainian-Polish meetings on physics of ferroelectrics which have been held in these countries alternatively every two years since 1991. Besides scientists from Ukraine and Poland, there were the participants from the Czech Republic, Latvia, Russia, Germany and other countries. Starting from 2010 the conference became trilateral when the scientists from Lithuania joined the common meetings organization.

75 scientists from 6 countries (Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, the Czech Republic and France) participated in last UPL meeting which was a logical continuation of the symposia within the framework of this series. Lectures and contributions were devoted to fundamental and applied problems of physics of ferroelectrics and related materials, such as:

• phase transitions in ferroelectrics and ferroics;
• dielectric, spectroscopic and optical investigations of new ferroelectric materials;
• role of domains and defects;
• physical effects in ceramics, thin films and incommensurate phases;
• ferroelectric liquid crystals;
• relaxor phenomena.

Much attention was paid to the applied research which reflected the main trend in the investigation of ferroelectric materials during the recent years.

The papers selected for publication in this issue are devoted to the study of phase transitions, electrophysical and dielectric properties, polarization switching and pressure effects in ferroelectric crystals, relaxors and composites. Publishing this series of papers, the Editorial Board continues a tradition of publishing the Proceedings of Ukrainian-Polish conferences on ferroelectric physics (Condensed Matter Physics, 1999, vol. 2(20), No. 4; ibid., 2003, vol. 6(34), No. 2 ; ibid., 2007, vol. 10(49), No. 1.

The other two parts of Proceedings of the UPL MFP-2 conference are published in special issues of the Phase Transitions journal (vol. 86, No. 9, 2013) and the Ukrainian Journal of Physical Optics (vol. 13, No. 4, 2012 and vol. 13, Supplement 3, 2012).

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