Introduction

Abstract

Ferroelectrics, whether single crystals, ceramics, or polymeric materials, are very well known and constitute the active components of devices that span applications from medical diagnosis and nondestructive materials testing via pyroelectric sensors and energy harvesting to nonvolatile ferroelectric memories. The fundamental property of these materials, which is at the origin of all these applications, is their spontaneous polarization, which can be switched by an electric field. All phenomena of actuation, sound generation, IR-sensing, and the like rely on this property.