The origin of pyroelectricity in boracite at varying temperatures

Abstract

Abstract Chambersite (Mn3B7O13Cl) has excellent pyroelectric performance and promised to be a low-cost substitute for LiTaO3 and a non-toxic alternative to PbTiO3 in many application scenarios. However, the origin and mechanism of pyroelectricity in Mn3B7O13Cl at varying temperatures remain to be studied. In this work, we report the temperature-dependent crystal structure information via X-ray diffraction refinement, and based on this, we calculated the intrinsic electric dipole moments of the typical coordination polyhedral ([ClMn6]) in Mn3B7O13Cl unit cell along the c-axis at various temperature ranging from 300 to 400 K. The calculated pyroelectric coefficients based on the intrinsic electric dipole moments were in line with the experimental results, based on the above results, we can conclude that the origin of pyroelectricity in Mn3B7O13Cl is mainly the distortion of the ClMn6 polyhedron along the c-axis. Our work has understood the pyroelectric mechanism of Mn3B7O13Cl, and has played a positive role in promoting the modifications and applications for Mn3B7O13Cl and other boracite minerals.