Amorphous piezo- and pyroelectric phases of BaZrO3 and SrTiO3

Pyro- and piezoelectric quasiamorphous thin turns of BaZrO3 and SrTiO3 are reported. This is the first instance of a polar amorphous solid being created from a compound that does not from polar crystalline polymorphs. The pyro-electric and the piezoelectric properties of the quasi-amorphous SrTiO3 are of the same order of magnitude (10-50%) as those of the most commonly used crystalline pyro- and piezo-electric materials, such as BaTiO3, Pb(Ti,Zr)O-3, and LiNbO3 (see figure).