Like other dielectric materials, the predominant pyroelectric structure is the perovskite.
Two examples are:
0.75Pb(Mg1/3-Nb2/3)O3-0.25PbTiO3, which has a pyroelectric coefficient of −1300 μC m−2 K−1 as a single crystal.
It is more commonly referred to as PMN-PT.
A rotatable image of this crystal structure:
View crystal structure (5 MB) ... in separate window ... video alone
and
Ba0.65Sr0.35TiO3, which has a pyroelectric coefficient of −7570 μC m−2 K−1.
It is also known as BST.
A rotatable image of this crystal structure:
View crystal structure (5 MB) ... in separate window ... video alone
Perovskites have already been discussed in much more detail here.
However, there are other types of pyroelectric material which do not have a perovskite structure. Two of the more common of these will also be considered.
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