Ferroelectric materials for thermal IR detectors

Abstract

The physics of pyroelectric infra red detectors as it applies to the selection of detector materials is briefly reviewed and the properties of a number of the more commonly used materials are compared. The use of ferroelectrics in the region of the Curie temperature as dielectric bolometers with an applied bias field is assessed and the properties of barium strontium titanate and lead magnesium niobate for use in this mode are reported and their potential compared with the conventional pyroelectrics.