Ferroelectric properties, rate dependencies

Since niobates and tantalates belong to the octahedral ferroelectric family, fluorine-oxygen substitution has a particular importance in managing ferroelectric properties. Thus, the variation in the Curie temperature of such compounds with the fluorine-oxygen substitution rate depends strongly on the crystalline network, the ferroelectric type and the mutual orientation of the spontaneous polarization vector, metal displacement direction and covalent bond orientation [47]. Hence, complex tantalum and niobium fluoride compounds seem to have potential also as new materials for modem electronic and optical applications. 

The rate dependencies of the ferroelectric material properties are also reflected in the dynamics after fatigue. Initially, most of the domain system will be switched almost instantaneously [235], and only a small amount of polarization will creep for longer time periods [194]. A highly retarded stretched exponential relaxation was observed after bipolar fatigue treatment [235], and these observations correlated well with the thermally activated domain dynamics. If the overall materials response was represented in a rate-dependent constitutive material law 236], however, then a growing defect cluster size would retard the domain dynamics considerably. Hard and soft material behaviors were also representable as different barrier heights to a thermally activated domain wall motion, as demonstrated by the theoretical studies of Belov and Kreher [236]. 

The origin of the pyroelectric effect, particularly in crystalline materials, is due to the relative motions of oppositely charged ions in the unit cell of the crystal as the temperature is varied. The phase transformation of the crystal from a ferroelectric state to a paraelectrlc state involves what is called a "soft phonon" mode (9 1). In effect, the excursions of the ions in the unit cell increase as the temperature of the material approaches the phase transition temperature or Curie temperature, T. The Curie temperature for the material used here, LiTaO, is 618 C (95). The properties of a large number of different pyroelectric materials is available through reference 87. For the types of studies envisaged here, it is preferable to use a pyroelectric material whose pyroelectric coefficient, p(T), is as weakly temperature dependent as possible. The reason for this is that if p(T) is independent of temperature, then the induced current in the associated electronic circuit will be independent of ambient temperature and will be a function only of the time rate of change of the pyroelectric element temperature. To see this, suppose p(T) is replaced by pQ. Then Equation U becomes... 

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