Microwave dielectric dispersion in ferroelectric telluric acid ammonium phosphate

The paper presents the results of the investigation of dielectric dispersion in monoclinic telluric acid ammonium phosphate crystal over the frequency range 1 MHz to 77 GHz. It is shown that ferroelectric dispersion of the Debye type along the direction perpendicular to the plane (101) occurs in the frequency range 10⁸ to 10¹¹ Hz and is caused by a single relaxational soft mode. The relaxational soft mode is caused by the flipping motion of protons between two potential minima in a hydrogen bond. The frequency of the flipping proton mode in the paraelectric phase varies according to v_s = 0.94 (T – T_o ) GHz and decreases to 1.75 GHz at T_c = 317.3 K. The relaxational mode gives the main contribution to the high static dielectric permittivity of this crystal which fits the Curie-Weiss law. The results confirm the order-disorder nature of a proper ferroelectric phase transition of second order.