Excitations of the ferroelectric order

Abstract

We identify the bosonic excitations in ferroelectrics that carry electric dipoles from the phenomenological Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire theory. The ``ferron'' quasiparticles emerge from the concerted action of anharmonicity and broken inversion symmetry. In contrast to magnons, the transverse excitations of the magnetic order, the ferrons in displacive ferroelectrics are longitudinal with respect to the ferroelectric order. Based on the ferron spectrum, we predict temperature-dependent pyroelectric and electrocaloric properties, electric-field-tunable heat and polarization transport, and ferron-photon hybridization.

Topics & Concepts