Pyroelectric materials : infrared detectors particle accelerators and energy harvesters Materials have played a revolutionary role in the development of the modern technological age and their various applications have made our lives increasingly comfortable here on our home the beautiful blue planet Earth. With the application of heat pyroelectric materials produce electric current qualifying them for use in uncooled infrared detectors. Infrared detectors are encountered in a vast number of applications in both war and peace many of their uses are routine to us in everyday life. With the advent of new technologies thermal sensing and imaging have become useful diagnostic tools for medical industrial and military applications. In medicine infrared thermal imaging is applied to detect vascular disorders and arthritic rheumatisms as well as to monitor muscular performances and make preclinical diagnoses of breast cancer. Recently these materials have been used in nuclear particle generation and their usefulness in energy harvesting is currently under exploration. This monograph contains comprehensive cutting edge information on pyroelectric materials and their preparation properties and applications such as uncooled wideband infrared detectors particle generators and ambient energy harvesters. The complete lifecycle of a pyroelectric material is presented here for readers from the theory of operation to structure and processing and applications providing a cohesive overview of all of the necessary concepts including theoretical background and current developments in the field of pyroelectric devices. It describes the preparation structure properties and figures of merit for practical pyroelectric materials such as triglycine sulfate lead zirconate titanate lithium tantalate lithium niobate barium strontium titanate lead magnesium niobate lead titanate polyvinylidene fluoride zinc oxide and others including the merits and demerits of their use in devices Foreword Preface Acknowledgments Glossary of symbols and abbreviations 1. Fundamentals of pyroelectric materials 2. Pyroelectric IR detectors 3. Processing of key pyroelectric materials 4. Important pyroelectrics: properties and performance parameters 5. Innovative techniques for pyroelectric IR detectors 6. Pyroelectric particle generators 7. Pyroelectric energy harvesting Appendix. Major pyroelectric manufacturing companies