Temperature dependence of dielectric permittivity in incommensurately modulated phase of ammonium fluoroberyllate

We study the temperature dependence of dielectric permittivity along the polar axis for ferroelectric ammonium fluoroberyllate (AFB) crystal in the vicinity of its phase transition points. The experimental data within incom-mensurately modulated phase of AFB is compared with the predictions of phenomenological models known from the literature: the Curie-Weiss (CW) law, the generalized Curie-Weiss (GCW) law, and the models by Le-vanyuk and Sannikov (LS) and by Prelovsek, Levstik and Filipic (PLF) suggested for improper ferroelectrics. It is shown that the LS approach describes the temperature behavior of the dielectric permittivity for the AFB crystal better than the CW, GWC and PLF models. The main physical reasons of this situation are elucidated.