A new pyroelectric polar nanocomposite thin film is presented. A dense array of aluminium oxide cylindrical nanopores is used as a template to grow pyroelectric nano-crystals of TriGlycine Sulfate (TGS). The crystals are grown inside nanopores having an average diameter of 14±4nm and a length of 0.5 micron. The crystals are grown with a preferred crystallographic orientation having their polar axis [010] aligned in vertical to the film plane. The pyroelectric response at different temperatures is measured using the dynamic method. The dielectric characterization reveals resistivity of about 1E-9 ohm-m, dielectric loss (tan(δ)) of about 0.03, and relative dielectric permittivity of about 10 at room temperature which increases to a maximum value at the ferroelectric-paraelectric phase transition. The pyroelectric coefficient of the film is about 3.5 μC/m²K and the pyroelectric voltage figure of merit is about 40 kVm^-1K ^-1.

Date Published: 27 August 2009
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 7419, Infrared Systems and Photoelectronic Technology IV, 741906 (27 August 2009); doi: 10.1117/12.825670

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7419:
Infrared Systems and Photoelectronic Technology IV
Eustace L. Dereniak; Randolph E. Longshore; Ashok K. Sood; John P. Hartke; Paul D. LeVan, Editor(s)