Diatomic Ferroelectrics

Abstract

Experimental measurements of the phonon dispersion relation for SnTe suggest that the phase transition of GeTe and SnTe/GeTe alloys is of a displacive character, similar to that of the perovskite ferroelectrics. They therefore provide the first examples both of diatomic ferroelectrics and of "ferroelectric semiconductors," with a narrow band gap.