Improved figure of merit in obliquely cut pyroelectric crystals

In pyroelectric crystals with high dielectric anisotropy, a significantly higher figure of merit can be obtained using cuts at oblique angles to the pyroelectric axis, rather than the conventional cuts lying perpendicular to it. For a particular material an appropriate cut can be selected to provide the maximum figure of merit attainable at the chosen temperature of operation. Experimental data obtained in deuterated triglycine fluoroberylate crystals show that optimum oblique cuts can yield an increase as great as a factor of 3 in the figure of merit of this material.