A Phenomenological Study on Ferroelectric Β-Glycine

Abstract

The anomalous behavior of the specific heat for beta-glycine was analyzed in terms of the compressible Ising model approximately 5 K below and above the ferrelectric-paraelectric phase transition temperature of T-C =252 K. The obtained value of the critical exponent alpha =0.12 in the ferroelectric phase (T < TC) was consistent with that predicted from the 3-d Ising model (alpha =0.13), while the obtained value of alpha =0.32 in the paraelectric phase (T > TC) was consistent with that predicted from the 2-d potts model (alpha =0.30). Some thermodynamic quantities such as the internal energy, the entropy and the free energy of beta-glycine were then predicted in terms of these extracted values of the critical exponents close to the phase transition temperature of TC. Our calculated values of the thermodynamic quantities are in good agreement with the observed data.