With the development of ceramic processing and thin film technology, many new ap plications have emerged.

The biggest use of ferroelectric ceramics have been in the areas such as dielectric ceramics for capacitor applications, ferroelectric thin films for non volatile memories, piezoelectric materials for medical ultras ound imaging and actuators, and electro-optic materials for data storage and dis plays. --- All ferroelectric materials have a transition temperature called the Curie p oint (Tc). At a temperature T > Tc the crystal does not exhibit ferroelectricity , while for T < Tc it is ferroelectric. On decreasing the temperature through th e Curie point, a ferroelectric crystal undergoes a phase transition from a non-f erroelectric phase to a ferroelectric phase. If there are more than one ferroele ctric phases, the temperature at which the crystal transforms from one ferroelec tric phase to another is called the transition temperature ---all single crystals and successfully poled ceramics which show ferroelectric behavior are pyroelectric, but not vice versa. For example tourmaline shows pyro electricity but is not ferroelectric. ---PLZT shows electro optic effects and also has a relaxor cubic phase and also has an anti ferroelectric phase which is used for optical memory ---Relaxor ferroelectrics like PMN can be distinguished from normal ferroelectri cs such as BaTiO3 and PZT, by the presence of a broad diffused and dispersive ph ase transition on cooling below the Curie point. Figure 12 shows the variation i n the dielectric properties with temperature for PMN ceramic. It shows a very hi gh room temperature dielectric constant and a low temperature dependence of diel ectric constant. The diffused phase transitions in relaxor ferroelectrics are du e to the compositional heterogeneity seen on a microscopic scale ---The high dielectric constants of the relaxors materials such as PMN make them ideal for MLC capacitor applications. Relaxors have various advantages over BaT iO3based materials including higher dielectric constants (? r ? 25,000 vs. a max imum ? r of ? 15,000 for BaTiO3 based ceramics). In addition, the temperature de pendence of permittivity is much lower for relaxor materials, with no microstruc ture control needed for getting a shallow peak as in BaTiO3 ---page 20 ferroelectric memories

+++++Applications of ferroelectric thin films utilize the unique dielectric, pie zoelectric, pyroelectric, and electro-optic properties of ferroelectric material s. Some of the most important electronic applications of ferroelectric thin film s include nonvolatile memories, thin films capacitors, pyroelectric sensors, and surface acoustic wave (SAW) substrates. The electro-optic devices being studied include optical waveguides and optical memories and displays.