1992/11/01 by Raffaele Resta, R. Resta · 2 citations
Chemistry · Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Acoustic Wave Resonator Technologies #Chemistry #Computer science #Condensed matter physics #Dielectric #Dipole #Electric field #Electric susceptibility #Ferroelectricity #Materials science #Optoelectronics #Photorefractive and Nonlinear Optics #Physical chemistry #Physics #Piezoelectricity #Polarization (electrochemistry) #Polarization density #Pyroelectricity #Quantum mechanics #Sketch #Solid-state spectroscopy and crystallography
paper · doi:10.1080/00150199208016065
crossref issued 1992/11/01 · crossref published 1992/11/01 · crossref published-print 1992/11/01 · openalex publication_date 1992/11/01 · crossref created 2007/06/25 · crossref deposited 2019/04/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/08/05 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Contrary to common textbook statements, the macroscopic electric polarization of a crystal cannot be unambiguously defined as the dipole of a unit cell. The only measurable quantities are either derivatives of the polarization (dielectric susceptibility, Born effective charges, piezoelectricity, pyroelectricity) or finite differences (ferroelectricity). The differential concept is a basic one in theoretical work too. I sketch here the basic theory and the state of the art in its implementation to real materials, both for induced and spontaneous polarization; for the latter case, I also propose a novel approach.