Ferroics

Ferroics is the generic name given to the study of ferromagnets, ferroelectrics, and ferroelastics.

The basis of ferroics is to understand the large changes in physical characteristics that occur over a very narrow temperature range. The changes in physical characteristics occur when phase transitions take place around some critical temperature value, normally denoted by ${\displaystyle T_{c}}$. Above this critical temperature, the crystal is in a nonferroic state and does not exhibit the physical characteristic of interest. Upon cooling the material down below ${\displaystyle T_{c}}$ it undergoes a spontaneous phase transition. Such a phase transition typically results in only a small deviation from the nonferroic crystal structure, but in altering the shape of the unit cell the point symmetry of the material is reduced. This breaking of symmetry is physically what allows the formation of the ferroic phase.

In ferroelectrics, upon lowering the temperature below ${\displaystyle T_{c}}$, a spontaneous dipole moment is induced along an axis of the unit cell. Although individual dipole moments can sometimes be small, the effect of ${\displaystyle 10^{24}}$ unit cells gives rise to an electric field that over the bulk substance that is not insignificant. An important point about ferroelectrics is that they cannot exist in a centrosymmetric crystal. A centrosymmetric crystal is one where a lattice point ${\displaystyle \left(x,y,z\right)}$ can be mapped onto a lattice point ${\displaystyle \left(-x,-y,-z\right)}$.

...
Wikipedia