Control of the elastic compliance of ferroelectric LiTlC4H4O6 · H2O by electric field

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Abstract
In lithium thallium tartrate monohydrate it has been shown that the elastic compliance sE34 becomes anomalously soft at temperatures close to the ferroelectric Curie point near 10° K. This softness is a consequence of the extremely large piezoelectric coupling in LTT, and also results i'n an unusual measure of electrical control of the elastic shear properties. Below 12° K, a field of 9 kV/cm reduces sE44 to less than 1/25 of the zero field vaiue. In the paraelectric phase tan δ is less than 10-4 over most of the temperature range measured suggesting that the acoustic losses are also correspondingly small. Very slim hysteresis loops are observed in the ferroelectric phase, even with 0.01 Hz cycling frequencies. A tentative model is proposed to account for this unusual ferroelectric behavior.