Permittivity of Strontium Titanate

The permittivity of single‐crystal single‐domain strontium titanate has been measured in detail in the [001], [011], and [111] directions, as a function of temperature (from 4.2 to 300 °K), electric field (from −23 000 to +23 000 V/cm, and frequency (from 1 kHz to 50 MHz). The free energy of the crystal is determined as a function of polarization with temperature as a parameter. The Curie‐Weiss law is satisfied in the temperature range 60–300 °K, giving a Curie temperature of 30 ± 2 °K for the three crystal orientations. The Lyddane‐Sachs‐Teller (LST) relation is satisfied for temperatures between 30 and 300 °K and for electric fields between 0 and 12 000 V/cm. A generalized LST relation is used to calculate the permittivity of strontium titanate from zero to optic frequencies. Two active optic modes are important. The lower‐frequency mode is attributed mainly to motion of the strontium ions with respect to the rest of the lattice, while the higher‐frequency active mode is attributed to motion of the titanium ions with respect to the oxygen lattice. The restoring forces that act on the Ti ions begin to ``harden'' when these ions are displaced approximately 0.002 Å from their equilibrium positions.