Optical probe, local fields, and Lorentz factor in ferroelectrics

An optical probe is suggested that allows measurements of the local field and Lorentz factor (L) in ferroelectric medium. The copolymer poly (vinylidene fluoride/trifluoroethylene) is mixed with Pd-tetraphenylporphyrin (TPP-Pd) that has a very narrow absorption band. Thus, TPP-Pd serves as a molecular optical probe of the local field. During the switching of the electric field lower than the coercive one the factor L of an unpolarized ferroelectric mixture is found to be of about 1/3 that corresponds to the random distribution of molecular dipoles in the ferroelectric. With increasing field, the dipole orientation acquires a lower symmetry and L tends to zero as predicted by lattice sum calculations for vinylidene fluoride. The knowledge of the field dependence of L and the usage of the optical probe makes it possible to measure directly the local and macroscopic fields in the individual elements of various ferroelectric-dielectric heterostructures.