Electric polarization Curie temperature

Pyroelectric detector Polarized pyroelectric materials at temperatures below its Curie point Electric polarization produces voltage changes Low noise and fast response used for fast-scan FTIR... 

The ferroelectricity usually disappears above a certain transition temperature (often called a Curie temperature) above which the crystal is said to be paraelectric this is because thermal motion has destroyed the ferroelectric order. Occasionally the crystal melts or decomposes before the paraelectric state is reached. There are thus some analogies to ferromagnetic and paramagnetic compounds though it should be noted that there is no iron in ferroelectric compounds. Some typical examples, together with their transition temperatures and spontaneous permanent electric polarization P, are given in the Table. 

Above a specific temperature, the Curie temperature, a ferroelectric substance becomes paraelectric since the thermal vibrations counteract the orientation of the dipoles. The coordinated orientation of the dipoles taking place during the ferroelectric polarization is a cooperative phenomenon. This behavior is similar to that of ferromagnetic substances, which is the reason for its name the effect has to do nothing with iron (it is also called seignette or rochelle electricity). 

Yamada et al. [9,10] demonstrated that the copolymers were ferroelectric over a wide range of molar composition and that, at room temperature, they could be poled with an electric field much more readily than the PVF2 homopolymer. The main points highlighting the ferroelectric character of these materials can be summarized as follows (a) At a certain temperature, that depends on the copolymer composition, they present a solid-solid crystal phase transition. The crystalline lattice spacings change steeply near the transition point, (b) The relationship between the electric susceptibility e and temperature fits well the Curie-Weiss equation, (c) The remanent polarization of the poled samples reduces to zero at the transition temperature (Curie temperature, Tc). (d) The volume fraction of ferroelectric crystals is directly proportional to the remanent polarization, (e) The critical behavior for the dielectric relaxation is observed at Tc. 

In comparison to ordinary dielectrics, the permittivities of the so-called ferroelectric materials are about 103 times larger. The ferroelectric material can be transformed into a new type of material called piezoelectric material by heating the ferroelectric above its Curie temperature and then cooling it in a powerful electric field. A piezoelectric crystal changes its polarization once subjected to a mechanical strain. As a result, it can deform mechanically under an electric field or produce electric impulses as a result of mechanical impulses. Currently, piezoelectric materials are widely used as force or pressure transducers with fast response times and very sensitive output. Permittivities of common dielectric and ferroelectric materials are given in Table 1.9. 

It should be noted that in practice, the piezoelectric response will typically not continue to rise all the way to the transition temperature, as elevated temperatures induce depoling of the ferroelectric, unless appropriate care is taken to insure that the material remains polarized (e. g. by application of a bias electric field). Depoling of this type is often important at temperatures of 1/2 of the Curie temperature, making high transition temperature materials interesting both for the decreased temperature dependence in the response, and the wider use range that can be achieved. 

Vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene (VF2-F3E) copolymers exhibit a ferroelectric-paraelectric phase transition, the first such case found for a synthetic polymer. In this transition, the electric polarization and piezoelectric constant of the film disappear above the Curie point (Tcurie)- The temperature dependence of the dielectric constant, , obeys the so called Curie-Weiss law ... 

Sintered ceramics made of lead-zirconium titanate (PZT Pb(Tii jZr,)03 x S 0.5) are usually used for phoioacoustic experiments [105, 106]. The unit cell of the lead-zirconium titanate has a perovskite structure. Below the Curie temperature (328 °C for the PZT-4 (Vemitron) used by us [24]), the cells are tetragonally deformed, i.e., positive and negative charges are shifted and electric dipole moments are produced. In analogy to ferromagnetism, domains with randomly distributed polarization direction are formed. By the application of an electric field, these can be orientated in a preferred direction, and the sintered polycrystalline ceramic is then remanently polarized. The properties of these anisotropic piezoelectric materials are described by various parameters which depend on the polarization and deformation direction. In the common terminology, the < ordinate system shown in Fig. 3 is obtained for the cylindrical piezoelectric crystals [24]. 

Barium titanate is cubic with a perovskite structure. However, at room temperature (actually below the Curie temperature of 120°C) it is tetragonal with a spontaneous electric polarization in the direction of the c-axis (only the higher temperatures form is shown in Figure 7.2). In this ferroelectric condition a crystal of BaTiOs has a domain structure. 

It is known that the crystal symmetry defines point symmetry group of any macroscopic physical property, and this symmetry cannot be lower than corresponding point symmetry of a whole crystal. The simplest example is the spontaneous electric polarization that cannot exist in centrosymmetric lattice as the symmetry elements of polarization vector have no operation of inversion. We remind that inversion operation means that a system remains intact when coordinates x, y, z are substituted by —x, —y, —z. If the inversion center is lost under the phase transition in a ferroic at T < 7), Tc is the temperature of ferroelectric phase transition or, equivalently, the Curie temperature), the appearance of spontaneous electrical polarization is allowed. Spontaneous polarization P named order parameter appears smoothly... 

Some properties show hysteresis, and these are not unique functions of the conditions (pressure, temperature) but depend also on the history or the way the state has been arrived at. Examples of such properties are the degree of magnetic or electric polarization in ferromagnetic or ferroelectric compounds at temperatures below the Curie temperature and phase transition such as melting or solidification. The transition temperature depends on whether it is approached from below or above the Curie temperature. The phase transitions in some ferroelectrics are described in Section 4.5. 

NaKC4H40e 4H2O), monopotassium dihydrophosphate (KH2PO4), or barium titanate (BaTiOs). At sufficiently high temperatures ferroelectrics show normal dielectric behavior. However, below a certain critical temperamre (so called. Curie temperature), even a small electric field causes a large polarization, which is preserved even if the external field is switched off. This means that below the Curie point ferroelectric materials show spontaneous polarization. The phase transition at the Curie temperature is related to the change of the lattice symmetry of the sample. 

Electro-optic effects in ferroelectric materials can also be dealt with by similar arguments to those used so far. For example, above the Curie temperature (about 120°C), BaTiOs belongs to a cubic system (m3m), and since it has a center of symmetry does not exhibit piezoelectric or first-order electro-optic effects. Accordingly, the electro-optic effect in this paraelectric phase is the Kerr effect. Using the polarization optical constant R in Eq. 7 instead of an electric field, it can also be expressed in terms of polarization as follows ... 

Composition Typical prop< Saturadon polarization in(T) rties Curie temperature in CO Saturation magnetostriction in 10 Coercivity (dc) in (Am ) Permeability at H = 4mAm xlO Density in (gcm ) Spedfle electrical resistivity in (S2 mm m )... 

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