2005/03/30 by Jose-Maria Delgado-Sanchez, Jose-Maria Martin-Olalla, Maria-Carmen Gallardo +3
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.other
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0953-8984/17/17/012
published as Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter 17(17) 2645-2654 (2005) · 7 pages, 6 figures, ReVTeX, twocolumn format, to appear in J. Phys. Cond. Matter
arxiv created 2005/03/30 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
The specific heat, heat flux (DTA trace) and dielectric constant of KDP ferroelectric crystal have been measured simultaneously for various electric fields with a conduction calorimeter. The specific heat presents a strong anomaly but these simultaneous measurements allow us to evaluate the latent heat accurately. Latent heat decreases with field and the value of critical electric field --that where latent heat disappears-- is estimated to be (0.44±0.03) kV/cm. Incidentally, we have measured simultaneously the dielectric permittivity which suggests that latent heat is developed as domains are growing.