Structural Studies of Ferroelectric Oxides: a Gentle Introduction to the Synthesis and Structural Characterisation of Ferroelectric Materials

Aurivillius type ferroelectric oxides are of growing interest as a potential base material for the latest generation of non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) devices. The majority of the work presented here focuses on the properties of bulk quantities of these oxides. The first two chapters give a general rundown of the concepts behind the analysis of ferroelectric materials. The emphasis is on the use of laboratory and synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction and neutron powder diffraction techniques for structure elucidation. The later chapters deal specifically with the synthesis and analysis of several Aurivillius phase ferroelectric oxides and provide an in depth study of their structural behaviour as a function of temperature. Anyone interested in ferroelectricity or starting out in the area of solid state chemistry would find this book useful.