Ferroelectrics

Ferroelectricity is a characterstic of certain materials that have a spontaneous electric polarization that can be reversed by the application of an external electric field. The term is used in analogy to ferromagnetism, in which a material exhibits a permanent magnetic moment. Ferromagnetism was already known when ferroelectricity was discovered in 1920 in Rochelle salt by Valasek. Thus, the prefix ferro, meaning iron, was used to describe the property despite the fact that most ferroelectric materials do not contain iron.

When most materials are polarized, the polarization induced, P, is almost exactly proportional to the applied external electric field E; so the polarization is a linear function. This is called dielectric polarization (see figure). Some materials, known as paraelectric materials, show a more enhanced nonlinear polarization (see figure). The electric permittivity, corresponding to the slope of the polarization curve, is not constant as in dielectrics but is a function of the external electric field.

In addition to being nonlinear, ferroelectric materials demonstrate a spontaneous nonzero polarization (after entrainment, see figure) even when the applied field E is zero. The distinguishing feature of ferroelectrics is that the spontaneous polarization can be reversed by a suitably strong applied electric field in the opposite direction; the polarization is therefore dependent not only on the current electric field but also on its history, yielding a hysteresis loop. They are called ferroelectrics by analogy to ferromagnetic materials, which have spontaneous magnetization and exhibit similar hysteresis loops.

Typically, materials demonstrate ferroelectricity only below a certain phase transition temperature, called the Curie temperature (T_C) and are paraelectric above this temperature: the spontaneous polarization vanishes, and the ferroelectric crystal transforms into the paraelectric state. Many ferroelectrics lose their piezoelectric properties above Tc completely, because their paraelectric phase has a centrosymmetric crystal structure.

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