High-pressure investigations of ferroelectric phase transition in PbGeTe

Abstract
Hydrostatic pressure is used to separate the different contributions to the mechanism of the ferroelectric phase transition in the narrow gap Pb1-xGexTe (x=0.01, 0.015 and 0.02) crystal. Results of the DC resistivity and differential capacitance measurements are presented. To explain the observed phenomena the authors adopted the dynamical Ising model consisting of interactions between dipoles formed by Ge ions displaced from the regular cation site of the PbTe matrix.