Study by brillouin scattering of the C33 constant of thiourea submitted to an electric field

The C₃₃ constant is discontinuous for the lock-in transition at T₁ = 169 K. The variation ΔT₁ of the temperature of transition is a linear function of the applied electric field E and we find $\text{d}\text{T}{}_1\text{d}\text{E}\text{=0.82 deg.cm kV}{}^{\mathrm{?1}}$.Above a mean field E = 10 kV cm^?1 the transition observed for a first heating spreads on several degrees because damages appear in the incommensurate phase and the electric field becomes inhomogeneous.The results obtained at low fields are in very good accordance with the value of $\text{d}\text{T}{}_1\text{d}\text{E}$ calculated from the Clapeyron formula.Taking into account of the incommensurability of the phase above T₁, it can be shown that

$\text{dT}{}_1\text{dE}\text{=}\text{C}\text{2πP}{}_{\mathrm{o}}\text{3}\text{3}\text{?}\text{2}$

The knowledge of the spontaneous polarisation P₀ gives for the Curie constant C = 2.1 × 10³ K in qualitative agreement with the value deduced from measurements of the dielectric constant in the ferroelectric direction.