Abstract
Following a change of temperature of a pyroelectric (PE), a depolarizing electric field appears both inside the PE as well as outside its edges, the edge depolarizing electric field (EDEF). The EDEF extends outwards up to a distance of the order of magnitude of the PE width. The mapping and the strength of the EDEF have been here calculated and analyzed for the case of a semi-infinite pyroelectric plate. We propose here the idea of utilizing the EDEF of the pyroelectric solely as the source of an electrical field. This strong EDEF (104 - 105 Vcm), when penetrating into the surrounding medium, creates a variety of physical effects: inducing electrical current in a semiconductor and affecting its resistance, accelerating charged and neutral particles in vacuum or in a gas, generating electromagnetic waves, modifying optical characteristics by electro-optical and photoelasic effects, generating piezoelectric deformation, and more. We discuss a number of possible applications and devices based on these EDEF induced effects.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 113722 |
| Journal | Journal of Applied Physics |
| Volume | 100 |
| Issue number | 11 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2006 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We would like to acknowledge the fruitful discussions and valuable input provided by Professor A. Shaulov, from the Department of Physics at Bar-Ilan University, and by Professor S. Bravina and Professor N. Morozovsky, from the Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kiev. Thanks also to Professor V. Sablikov, from the Institute of Radioengineering and Electronics of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. This work has been partly supported by the Ministry of Science of the State of Israel, in the framework of the China-Israel Joint Research Project on Advanced Materials and their Applications 2006.
Funding
We would like to acknowledge the fruitful discussions and valuable input provided by Professor A. Shaulov, from the Department of Physics at Bar-Ilan University, and by Professor S. Bravina and Professor N. Morozovsky, from the Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kiev. Thanks also to Professor V. Sablikov, from the Institute of Radioengineering and Electronics of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. This work has been partly supported by the Ministry of Science of the State of Israel, in the framework of the China-Israel Joint Research Project on Advanced Materials and their Applications 2006.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Ministry of Science of the State of Israel |