Primary Pyroelectric Effect in LiTaO3

By a careful analysis of the pyroelectric effect in LiTa${\mathrm{O}}_3$ between 10 and 200°K, we have demonstrated for the first time the dominance of the lowest-order (polar-mode) contributions to the primary pyroelectric effect over a wide temperature range in a strongly pyroelectric material. In doing so we confirm, as an excellent approximation for the effect, a simple analytic form the theoretical origins of which go back to a paper by Boguslawski in 1914.